


Authority Online

by Rohad



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Bellow, F/F, Gay, Human AU, Online Dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:08:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 54,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23739619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rohad/pseuds/Rohad
Summary: When online dating is the only way to get people to leave you alone about your non-existent love life.
Relationships: Blue Diamond/Yellow Diamond (Steven Universe), Pink Diamond/Greg Universe
Comments: 36
Kudos: 221





	1. Chapter 1

4:50 PM on a Friday

Just ten minutes left in the day and there was still a three-inch stack of things sitting on her desk that needed her immediate attention.

Jaune ran her fingers through her once carefully combed, short, blonde hair with one hand and flipped through the deposition from her last session of court with the other. It was a fairly cut and dry case, the defense was merely dragging their feet and wasting her time. She grunted before sliding the offending documents back into their case and glancing up at her laptop as her email dinged almost simultaneously with her phone. 

A quick tap on the track-pad began opening up her email as she glanced down at her phone and grimaced the second she glimpsed her mother’s contact photo. She couldn’t ignore it forever, as much as she wished she could, but she could certainly put it off for a little while. 

Amber eyes instead turned to the now three new emails sitting in her inbox, two from clients and one from her assistant who chose that moment to step into her office, a tablet in one arm and quickly flicking at something on the screen. 

“Ms. Roche, I sent the contracts you wanted and scheduled your meeting for Monday morning so they can be signed.” She continued to tap at the tablet without even looking up. 

“I got them,” she mumbled almost distractedly as she quickly typed out a reply to the other two emails and downloaded the documents to her hard drive before closing the laptop and sliding it and the rest of the papers and various manilla folders on her desk into her bag before finally looking at her phone and opening her mother’s text.

_‘Dinner will be at 6. Don’t be late.’_

Jaune rolled her eyes and sighed. She had forgotten about the dinner she had tentatively agreed to on Monday for no other reason than to get off the phone with the older woman so she could get some work done in peace.

Honestly, she had barely been listening as her mother had blabbered on about some show she was dying to go see and was unconsciously humming in agreement while reading through some paperwork when she had apparently agreed to dinner at her family’s estate. 

What she really needed to do was go home, order takeout and look over these files for her Monday meeting. She’d never hear the end of it though if she did. With another, more resigned sigh she stood from her desk and shouldered her bag, shutting and locking the drawers of her desk. 

This was her assistant's cue to look up from the screen she nearly had her pointed nose shoved against. 

"Goodnight, Daisy, I'll see you Monday." She nodded to her assistant as she walked out.

"Have a nice weekend, Ms. Roche." Her assistant's nasally, high pitched voice followed her into the hall.

"I wouldn't bet on it," she grumbled to herself as she stalked out to the elevator, hitting the ground floor button a little harder then she had intended. 

Dinner with her mother was the absolute last thing on her list of things she wanted to do this evening.

Especially with the kick her mother had been on for the past few months.

Apparently she had been single much too long, in her mother’s opinion, and had started trying to foist a random assortment of women on her at every social gathering, function, and event they ever went to together anymore. It was becoming tiresome, to say the least. 

She didn’t have time to date, even with two partners and about a dozen other lawyers beneath them, she had an ever-constant stream of work making its way onto her desk every week. 

True enough, she could assign a number of her cases to the more junior lawyers, but then she rarely got all the results she wanted. 

Perhaps she was a micromanager...

It got results though. 

In seven years she had turned her father’s successful practice into a proverbial giant in their field with a series of successful high profile cases. 

Ever since they had a constant inflow of cases and clients that did not leave her much of a social life. Which was her mother’s main complaint. 

How many times now had she watched her mother lay on the antique fainting couch in her drawing-room and lament her only child’s lack of a love life with the kind of over the top melodrama that one could expect from a retired cabaret dancer?

Several times that she could think of off the top of her head at this moment. 

Just last Tuesday, in fact. 

Tonight would probably be much of the same if she cared to wager on it.

She wasn’t against dating, but besides not having much time for it, it wasn’t as though she knew anyone who was worth even making the effort for. Certainly not the often, vapid women her mother had been trying to push onto her. 

Rich and affluent, but the kind of woman that Jaune knew she had nothing in common with. Most of their interests, like her mother’s, included spending all day at spas, and country clubs. Where her mother usually met them. Several she had run into at the opera. 

Something she couldn’t stand. 

She had a penchant for music and performing, as to be expected considering her mother’s influence on her as a child, but all opera did was give her a headache. 

When the elevator finally stopped, she walked quickly through the front lobby, glancing at her watch. 

The sight of the golden yellow Mercedes parked in her reserved spot on the ground floor of the parking garage made her relax a little as she pulled out her keys to unlock it. 

She tossed her bag into the backseat of the car and slid into the driver’s seat with a tired sigh.

She would bear dinner for the bare minimum she had to, but it certainly wouldn’t be with a grin.

~ ~ ~ 

By the time she managed to navigate the 5 o'clock traffic and pull up the gates of her grotesquely large childhood home, it was only five till six. The large black, wrought iron gates with the stylized ‘R’ in the center swung open when she pulled up, allowing her to drive up the immaculately kept, two hundred yards up to the main house. 

The large, white, American colonial styled mansion had been large to start with but had been added onto several times over the last eighty years it had been in her family, resulting in a twelve thousand square foot, two-story, fifteen bedroom and twelve bathroom monstrosity that was much too large for the number of people that lived in it. Namely her mother and a handful of staff, some of which had been working on the estate since she was born. This didn’t even account for the land the house was sitting on. 

She mostly didn’t even notice the sprawling acreage all around her anymore, but she did notice the unfamiliar, black Ferrari, parked in the driveway next to her mother’s white Aston Martin.

Was someone else here for dinner? 

Her mother would have said if she had bought another car, and she knew the older woman well enough to know that she would never buy a car in any shade but stark white. 

Jaune frowned, her instincts telling her to just turn around and go home, but she swallowed them knowingly and put her car in park behind her mother’s before climbing out of the car and moving up the walk to the front door. 

She didn’t bother with knocking and let herself in. The foyer was empty but she could hear her mother’s cloying laughter from down the hall. 

Inhaling deeply through her nose she followed the noise till she found the woman in the drawing-room, sitting across the room in her favorite chaise lounge, smiling at the two people sitting across from her. A much older, balding man and a woman with long black hair, perhaps around her own age. 

The man, even from the back, she recognized as an old friend and previous business partner of her father’s. The woman though was not familiar. 

It was at that moment that Blanche Roche happened to glance up and spot her daughter standing in the hall. 

“Jaune! We’ve been waiting for you.” She smiled, clapping her hands together, prompting the guests to turn and look at her. 

“Jaune, how good it is to see you again.” The man smiled brightly and walked around the couch to stick out his hand, which she grabbed more out of reflex than anything.

“You as well. I didn’t know we were having guests this evening...” Eyes flickered to her mother who was smiling coyly at her. 

“Ah, Well, we happened to run into your mother at the club this afternoon and she was kind enough to invite us to dinner, which reminds me, I don’t think you’ve ever met my daughter, Alice.” He held out an arm as the woman who had been sitting on the couch came around to shake her hand. 

“It’s nice to finally meet you.” The woman smiled.

“Dear, Alice here has been planning a trip to Spain, perhaps you could tell her about some of the things you did when you went last year,” Blanche suggested and Jaune immediately caught onto her mother’s game.

This was a setup.

She kept a carefully neutral look on her face even as she seethed inside at this ambush.

It was at that moment that her mother’s favorite maid, Penny, a tall, thin woman who kept her light colored hair in tightly coiled buns on the sides of her head, walked into the room to announce that dinner was ready to be served. 

Their guests followed her to the dining room, allowing Jaune to glare at her mother from across the room before having to follow. 

~ ~ ~ 

The next hour seemed to drag by for Jaune as her mother made not so subtle attempts to create some kind of connection between her and this woman that just did not exist. 

Her answers were short and to the point. Verging on curt, but just shy. Not shy enough if the looks her mother was sending her were any indication. 

It took everything she had not to sigh in relief when they announced they needed to be going. They walked them to the front door, saying their goodbyes before walking out. 

Alice stopped in the door just long enough to turn to Jaune and hold out a business card with her number on it., which she took.

“When you have time we should get together again.” She smiled before walking out the door. Jaune glanced down at the card.

“Well, you were perfectly surly, this evening.” Her mother’s annoyed tone cut the silence. 

“I don’t appreciate being ambushed.” She turned to her mother with a scowl. “Did you plan this all week?”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” she scoffed, turning on heel and walking to her study, Jaune following, stalkingly, right behind her. “I ran into them today and thought it was a good opportunity.” She tossed a hand flippantly as she sat at her desk and reached for the decanter of brandy sitting on the desk and poured herself a glass. 

“That you tactfully did not mention to me.” Amber eyes glared into black ones for a long moment before Blanche sighed, resigned at being caught red-handed in duplicity. 

“It was just one dinner, dear.” She picked up the glass and swirled the liquid around. “You act as though I had planned an entire wedding.” 

“If you could I’m sure you would.” Jaune snorted, crossing her arms.

“I’m only trying to help…,” she started.

“I don’t need help!” Jaune snapped, making her mother’s eyes widen a fraction. She sighed and closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose in a vain attempt to warn off the headache she could feel coming on. When the tightness finally receded somewhat she opened her eyes to look at her mother.

“We have talked about this several times, and I know you just want me to be happy, but I’m perfectly fine as I am now mother,” she assured, though it was said in a level tone, there was certain pointedness to the words.

Blanche looked at her for a long, quiet moment before sighing tiredly, seemingly more to herself. 

“I know you are, Jaune, but fine and happy are not the same thing,” she said before finally lifting the brandy filled glass to her lips and taking a deep drink.

~ ~ ~ 

It was only when she was home, sitting in front of her laptop in her home office and nursing a large glass of wine after a near boiling shower that she cared to think about what her mother had said. 

She could, grudgingly, admit that while she wasn’t unhappy, that didn’t mean she was happy either.

She was… content, perhaps would have been the right word.

Content could be improved, of course, she’d just never really cared to try. Though it was now becoming apparent that if she didn’t put in some kind of effort, even minimal, she was going to continue to be ambushed at dinners. She drummed her fingers on the wooden desktop, nails clicking on the high polished surface. 

Where would she even start, it had been a while, and she was short on time most days, not even mentioning that bars and clubs had never been her style to start with.

She glanced at her computer for a long moment and took a long drink before setting the glass down and tapping the screen, bringing the device to life. She hesitated only a moment before she opened the browser and typed.

_‘Online dating’_

Several hundred pages popped up, making her grimace and take another long drink. 

She scrolled through about half a page, unimpressed with the majority of the offerings. 

Especially Tinder.

She was about ready to close the computer and walk away when one website happened to catch her eye, if for no other reason then the bizarre name.

_‘The Authority: Online dating for adult professionals’_

Curiously, she clicked the link. 

It had a similar look to some of the other dating sites she’d seen before but perhaps more streamlined and with fewer frills, not that she was going to pretend to be an expert on web design, dating or otherwise.

It touted a large user base of professionals all over the world and a superior matching algorithm. She rolled her eyes, scrolling through the front page. 

With a final sigh, she clicked the signup and started filling out the various questions. Height, weight, hobbies, the standard affair. If nothing else, the next time her mother inevitably brought this up she could tell her that she was at least making an attempt.

It took her longer than she cared to admit to find some photos of herself that were both recent and not dressed for trial, though she added one in any way. The other two, her on the beach and in the markets in Spain last year.

It wasn’t a vacation, it was work, but they had finished a couple of days early and Daisy had convinced her to do some sightseeing. 

She couldn’t off the top of her head think of the last time she had traveled that wasn’t for work purposes. 

Putting that aside for now, she finished putting in her personal information and moved on to the questions about what she was looking for.

She was relieved to see the women seeking women option. She remembered all too well when all the lawsuits had been going on against a popular dating site that had adamantly refused to cater to any sort of LGBTA clientele. 

She’d considered taking some of the cases at the time but had been swamped with other things at the time.

Clicking the right box and selecting her desired age range and city before it finally took her to her newly created profile and prompted her to write a short bio.

She quickly typed out a short paragraph, just the basic information, her profession, where she went to school and a few random tidbits about herself. 

The screen began to buffer before a message popped up.

_‘Congratulations, your profile is complete! Now send some messages!’_

“Not tonight…” She shut the computer and stood, taking her wine with her as she flicked off the light and closed the office door behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

3:30 AM, Saturday 

The alarm on her nightstand began to blare unrelentingly, rattling atop the nightstand. 

The lump of covers slowly began to shift.

Sluggishly, an arm slid out from beneath the blankets, and one well placed slap silenced the grating noise and the lump went still again for a long moment before sighing. The blankets shifted as ever so slowly she sat herself up and flipped back the covers and swung her legs over the side, bare feet touching down onto the cold wooden floors as she freed herself from her blanket cocoon. 

A jaw cracking yawn worked its way out and before she forced herself up, tiptoeing carefully through the darkness with practiced ease, even still partially asleep and eyes closed. 

She reached out and flicked a switch on the wall and the bathroom light flickered on, she squinted into the harsh light as she fumbled with the shower knobs, blowing a few stray strands of long silvery hair out of her face. Eventually, the water turned hot, filling the small bathroom with steam as she shucked her pajamas, letting them fall where they may on the tiled floor.

Celeste sighed as the hot water ran off her skin, helping to wash away any lingering drowsiness. 

She carefully combed her fingers through the tangled mess that was her morning hair, till it lay in a smooth wet sheet across her shoulders and back, the water turning the normally silver hairs a stormy gray. Her forehead pressed against the cool tile for more than a couple of minutes before quickly washing. 

She’d wasted enough time here, she had things to do.

Turning off the water she carefully stepped out and wrapped the fluffy blue towel hanging on the rack around her and padded out into her bedroom, flipping on the light. 

She dug through her closet before settling on simple jeans and a t-shirt that would be covered in flour before the sun even rose. She wrapped the towel around her hair and dressed, moving quickly out of her room and into the kitchen where the automatic timer on her kettle had just finished brewing her morning cup of black tea into her favorite mug. 

She took a long, deep breath of the warm steam drifting out of the cup before taking it back into the bathroom with her before setting to work on drying the mass of wet hair on her head. 

A solid fifteen minutes later she set down the hairdryer and slid a hand through her hair. Satisfied it was dry, she curled the long strands into a bun atop her head before she took her cup and left her apartment, flicking off all the lights as she went, stopping at the door just long enough to pull on her favorite slips on shoes and hurry out the door. Her steps echoed back at her in the empty stairwell as she made her way from the third floor to the ground floor, sipping on her tea. 

She stepped out of the stairwell and into the dark lobby, making her way into the back and hit the switch, flooding the kitchen with light and pulled the navy blue, stained and flour-dusted apron off its hook and slipped it over her head, tying the ends behind her as she walked across the room to the large pin board with several slips of paper and various receipts attached to it and glanced at them as she sipped her tea. 

The cupcakes were being picked up today, they just needed to be frosted. Sky could start that when she came in. She needed to put the finishing touches on the wedding cake that was being picked up tomorrow and start a few new batches of dough for pastries. 

With a plan in mind, she hit the power button on the radio, filling the quiet kitchen with the soft lilting sounds of a guitar.

She hummed to herself as she moved about the kitchen, measuring wet and dry ingredients into large mixers and pulling several trays of cling wrap covered dough out of the walk-in fridge that had been left overnight to rise. She prodded gently at them and was pleased with the bounceback of the dough as she pulled it out of the bowl with liberally floured hands and began to knead.

She was barely aware of how much time had passed. That often happened, she could just lose herself in the comforting, repetitive process of prepping, mixing and baking batches of pastries and bread for hours at a time; it was soothing. 

“Good morning.” A quiet voice spoke up out of nowhere.

Celeste jumped, sending a cloud of flour into the air as she whipped around to find a wiery, younger woman, her dark, shoulder length hair, hanging in front of her eyes.

“Sky… you startled me,” she admitted, wiping her flour dusted hands on her apron.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, though the small smile said otherwise, walking into the kitchen proper and pulling her own apron off the hook. 

“It’s alright, I need you to start icing the cupcakes for the Smith order, they’re coming to pick them up at noon,” she instructed before turning back to the balls of dough waiting to be turned into loaves of bread. 

“Right” Sky’s quiet reply was barely audible over the new song playing on the radio, though Celeste was used to the quiet and soft-spoken demeanor of her assistant.

They worked together in relative silence, rotating things in and out of the ovens and into the display cases in the front of the store. Before she knew it her phone alarm was beeping at her, telling her it was 8 am, time to open the doors. 

“Watch the mixer, I’ll be right back…” She wiped her hands off on her apron as she walked out to the front and hit several switches, turning on the lights in the lobby of the shop and inside the display cases, lighting up the racks of shiny, sugared treats, before moving to the front and unlocking the door as she flipped the closed sign in the window around to read open. She pushed open the door and locked it into place, allowing the scent of freshly made baked goods to waft out into the street. She stood on the sidewalk and looked up and down the street of a slowly waking city on a Saturday morning. The businesses across the street were beginning to open their doors and neon open signs cast a scarlet glow over the dim street, still quiet, save for the occasional passing car. 

She could smell the freshly roasted coffee from the cafe just next door, she enjoyed the smell, even if she didn’t care much for coffee itself. Stepping back inside, she did a quick check of the cash register and that the counter’s were clean. Somehow, by the end of the day, they were always sticky. And she could never figure out why but had long ago attributed it to just being the way things were. 

She walked back into the kitchen just in time to hear the quick thumping of feet in the stairwell and was smiling even before a small boy with curly black hair came bounding out of the stairwell, still dressed in his pajamas. 

“Aunt Celeste!” he grinned brightly, changing trajectory to run headlong into her knees. She laughed, looking down at the six year old, running her fingers lovingly through his thick, dark hair. 

“Good morning, Steven, You’re just in time for breakfast, everything is warm and gooey,” she emphasized, tapping him on the nose and smiling when he went cross-eyed following her finger.

“Yeah, let’s pump him full of sugar…Whoo,” a drowsy voice piped up.

Celeste looked up at her sister as she shuffled into the kitchen, still in her own pastel pink pajamas and lion-headed slippers. Her own curly head of hair, a tangled mess.

“It was originally your idea to let him have a pastry for breakfast on Saturday,” Celeste reminded her with a small smirk. Rose only grumbled and shuffled her way to the front of the store. 

“Shall we?” She smiled down at the boy still clutching at her legs. He grinned and took off toward the front. 

Rose was picking up a peach danish in a square of parchment paper when they came out. She closed the case and walked out the front door, making a sharp left toward the cafe. Celeste rolled her eyes.

It certainly was cheaper to trade pastries for coffee with the man who owned the cafe, but Rose could have at least put on real clothes before going over. Ignoring her younger sister’s life choices for the moment she walked around to the other side of the glass where her nephew was contemplating all the baked goods on display with uncharacteristic seriousness.

“So…?” She drawled, kneeling down next to him. He hummed, tapping his small fingers against his chin. 

“What would you have?” He finally asked, looking up at her. Pale eyebrows lifted at the question before turning to look into the crystal clear cases.

“I think for breakfast you can’t go wrong with soda bread and jam.” She pointed to the raisin studded, sliced and whole rounds of bread on one side of the case.

“Yeah, okay.” He nodded.

“Are you sure? I don’t think you’ve ever had Irish soda bread before, you know you only get one,” she reminded.

“Yeah.” He nodded and pointed at the bread. 

“Alright.” She walked around and pulled out a slice of bread, Steven followed her into the back and pulled himself onto a stool in the back corner where a small table was set up for prep, as well as his Saturday morning breakfast. 

Celeste slathered strawberry jam onto the bread before setting it on a napkin down in front of him and watched as he took a large bite.

“Well?” She looked at him expectantly.

“It’s really good!” He gurgled around the food still in his mouth as he tried taking another big bite.

Celeste leaned down and placed a kiss on top of his dark curls.

“You may have been born here, but you’re Irish at heart, my love.”

Rose chose that moment to reappear, coffee in hand and looking far more alive then she had a few minutes earlier.  
“Oooh, soda bread…can mom have some?” She leaned down and took a small bite when the boy held it up to her. 

“Thank you, sweety.” She kissed his cheek before leaving him to his breakfast.

“Big orders today?” She turned to Celeste. 

“Just finishing up a couple, shouldn’t take long, all the prep for tomorrow is already done, as well as today’s restocking,” she rattled off distractedly and moved a bowl of proofing dough into the walk-in.

“Great, that means you have time to go to the park with us, right?” she asked.

“The park?” Steven turned to his mother excitedly then to his aunt, her face turning to that of a deer in headlights.

“I still have some things that need to be done and someone has to be out front. Sky can’t Ice cupcakes and watch the front.”

“Actually…,” a quiet voice piped up, drawing everyone’s eyes to her. Sky held out a hand to several large boxes, filled with beautifully iced cupcakes. “The Smith order is ready…I can watch the front.” 

Rose turned to her sister expectantly, as did Steven. 

With both of them giving her those pleading eyes she knew she was trapped. 

“Alright…,” she relented and smiled when the boy cheered, taking the rest of his breakfast and running back upstairs to change. 

“You’re not going to the park like that too are you?” she asked, turning to Rose, who stuck out her tongue before taking a sip of her coffee and heading up the stairs to their apartment on the second floor. 

~ ~ ~ ~

It always amazed Celeste how something like a trip to the park that for most people would have been an hour, two max, could turn into an entire day with her sister. 

Starting at the park, then on the way home window browsing along the shops on the way back had quickly turned into actual shopping for new clothes for Steven for school, followed by lunch and several more stops before they finally got back by which time it was one in the afternoon.

There were quite a few people in the shop and Sky looked more than a little haggard trying to run the register and give out orders. 

“We’ll go upstairs,” Rose mumbled, herding her son into the back and up the stairs to the apartments above the storefront. 

Celeste hurried around the counter to help, quickly getting the small crowd orderly and under control by allowing Sky to just concentrate on the register while she boxed up various baked goods for the people waiting in line. 

Once the shop had emptied out Celeste sighed, turning to her frazzled assistant. 

“My apologies, Sky. I never meant to be gone so long. Why don’t you go take a long break?” she suggested.

She nodded and quietly disappeared into the back.

After a while, she came back and the rest of the day went by much calmer and before she knew it, the sun had set and it was time to close up. 

What few pastries were left were split into two boxes and one was sent away with Sky, while she sat the other on the counter to drop off for her sister and brother-in-law when she went upstairs. 

She locked the door behind Sky with wishes for a good night and flipped the open sign around too closed and hit the lights before wandering into the back, making a mental note to add a little something to the other woman’s next paycheck. 

She still had one more thing left to finish.

Walking into the fridge she carefully rolled out the wedding cake that was being picked up first thing in the morning and mixed together a batch of icing before getting to work. 

With a steady hand, she carefully moved around the cake, creating perfect little shapes and designs across the curved white surface. Adding a dip here or a petal there. Before long she took a step back to admire her work. 

“Looks good enough to eat,” Rose announced herself as she walked out of the stairwell.

“I should hope so.” Celeste smiled. 

“You always seem to put in a little extra effort into wedding cakes,” Rose said offhandedly as she admired her sister’s work. It really was a thing of beauty, very nearly too beautiful to eat. 

Three large tiers of perfectly smooth, round, iced white cake stacked carefully atop each other. The attention to detail was apparent in the elegant piping and immaculate little flowers made of marzipan that peppered the top of each layer. 

“They are rather important,” Celeste smiled, as she stepped back to look over the cake once more with a critical eye. “Also, I like to give it a little extra effort, make their day a little extra special, if I can,” she admitted. Rose glanced at her as she gave the pastry a final look over. Debating if she wanted to start this conversation that had been bugging her a while before her mouth decided for her. 

“Wouldn’t you like to be able to make your own wedding cake someday?” Rose finally asked and Celeste stopped, dark blue eyes immediately falling onto her sister, her mouth started to open.

“It’s been three years since you went on a date.” Rose plowed on before her sister could say anything. “I know the bakery is incredibly important to you, but it’s doing better than ever, and I know you’d like to meet that special person, but it isn’t going to happen from the kitchen. You need to use some weekends to go meet people.” 

“I can’t leave Sky alone to fulfill orders on one of our busiest times of the week… as you saw today” She clasped her hands together, worrying the skin of her knuckles that had flecks of dried icing on them. 

“You could always hire some part-time weekend help. Sky is more than capable of overseeing someone, and she knows how you like things done, just someone to work half a day on Saturday’s would free up a lot of time for you,” Rose pushed. She hated the idea that her sister might be lonely.

Sure, she spent whatever time wasn’t spent in the bakery with her, Greg and Steven, but at the end of the night, she went upstairs to her apartment, alone. 

Celeste pursed her lips, looking pointedly away from her sister to gaze at the cake for a long moment before looking at Rose, who was staring at her, waiting. 

“I wouldn’t even know where to start anymore…,” she admitted quietly, causing Rose to grin almost manically. 

“Luckily I do. Meet me in your apartment when you’re done.” She turned and went upstairs, leaving Celeste alone in the kitchen. 

Satisfied with the cake she carefully rolled it back into the walk-in and finished cleaning up what little mess was left before turning off the lights and heading upstairs. 

Rose was sitting on her couch with her laptop open on the coffee table.

“Okay, come here.” She patted the cushion next to her.

She sat down and peered down at the computer that usually had the bakery’s website order forms open, and had a website she didn’t recognize. 

“The Authority: Online dating for adult professionals,” she read the bold header aloud. “Online dating?” She turned to Rose.

“Yeah! It takes time to meet people, time that you don’t usually have, but this way you can at least get a good feel for someone by messaging with them before you commit any time to a real date,” she reasoned.

“This is a dating site for doctors or lawyers…”

“You started and own your own business. You own this building, Celeste! You’re an adult professional. Now, are we gonna do this?” She gestured to the screen, sitting on the ‘create profile’ page.

She hesitated only a second before nodding.

Grinning, Rose pulled the laptop close and started typing.

“Full name...Celestine Carrick…” Rose spoke aloud as she typed. “Height, 5’ 8’’... Weight…” 

“I do not weigh that much!” Celeste hissed, smacking her sister’s arm.

“You wanna bet?” Rose challenged, hooking a thumb toward the bathroom where she knew the scale was. Her sister was far from what most people would call fat, but she was curvy, and for some reason, Rose had never been able to deduce, liked to pretend she wasn’t. 

“Let’s just move on,” she sniffed.

“What do you think age range wise?” Rose glanced at her. Her sister had dated so rarely over the years she couldn’t even take a guess as to what she might be into.

“32-36 I suppose? I’m not interested in anyone younger nor too much older.”

“Okay, orientation…. very gay,” she mumbled under her breath, earning another smack on the arm. 

They picked out a few pictures and then she slid the device over for Celeste to write her bio and hit save.

 _“Congratulations, your profile is complete! Now send some messages!”_

“All set! Have fun, night!” Rose smiled as she stood from the couch and left the apartment.

Celeste looked down at the home screen, where the profiles for several other members popped up and started scrolling.


	3. Ch 3

She was losing her mind, slowly but surely. That had to be the only explanation for today. 

Jaune sighed and rubbed at her temples when her final meeting with clients for the day ended and he left her office, though not without her practically telling him to get out. 

This was why she almost never took divorce cases and focused on corporate law. She got exceptionally tired of explaining to people that yes, their infidelities violated the infidelity clauses in their prenups and no, she didn’t care that it was only because their spouses wouldn’t sleep with them anymore or that getting a divorce would be too costly.

There was a knock on her office door and Jaune grumbled an affirmative, allowing Daisy to step into the room, closing the door behind her. 

“Mr. Otis wanted to schedule another appointment on his way out…” She started and Jaune held up a hand.

“Send him the usual email, I’m not taking new clients at this time. I’m not going to waste my time trying to help him fight his prenup when his soon to be ex-wife has video evidence of him breaking it, several times...” she grumbled, tossing his paperwork into her ‘shred’ pile. Daisy nodded and started furiously tapping at her tablet screen. 

She spun around in her chair to look out the massive floor to ceiling windows that commandeered one entire side of her office. Summer was fast approaching and the days were growing long, lighting up her office with bright sunlight for most of the day, and when she wasn’t a massive ball of stress she enjoyed the warm light that cascaded through the clear glass panes, warming her skin. 

Today, however, it hurt her eyes.

Jaune pinched the bridge of her nose, hoping to release the tension building behind her eyes. It had been a little more than a typical Monday, people running around the office like they didn’t know what they were supposed to be doing, phones ringing incessantly and if one more paralegal wandered into her office... 

At least one of the legal secretary’s looked hungover and another had a poorly covered up black eye and security had to be called into one office where a divorcing couple had come to blows right in front of their lawyers.

She adamantly refused to deal with any of it today. 

She locked herself in her office with a much to finite supply of coffee and her computer and tried to ignore everyone else in the office as she responded to a mass of emails and several long conference calls that should have been emails... 

There were still a couple hours left in the workday but having kept hunkered down in her office with her head down there was very little left for her to do for once, but she wasn’t going to leave her office if she could help it. Though in this instance it was like being in the eye of a storm. 

It was quiet and calm but she knew damn well that the minute she stepped out of the room she would be bombarded with a litany of things that needed her attention. 

Scratch that, things that needed the attention of someone with competence, something that seemed to be in short supply today, and her PA could only mitigate one disaster at a time in her stead.

She swiveled back around to her desk and sighed, looking at the last portfolio that needed her attention today. 

It wasn’t going anywhere. She turned to her laptop and took the moment to switch to her personal email and saw several messages waiting for her. She opened the first one to find an automatically generated email from _‘The Authority’._

Honestly, she had nearly forgotten about that already. 

Probably because after their talk she hadn’t heard from her mother for the rest of the weekend. 

She clicked it and scanned the basic welcome email before trashing it and moving on to the next.

 _‘You have messages waiting!’_

A dark blond brow hiked up at that.

That… was surprising. 

Jaune didn’t think she was unattractive, but she knew that she gave off a rather intimidating air. 

Besides being a lawyer and all the stoic aspects of her personality that seemed to go along with that, was also the fact that barefoot she stood above most people at 6’ 1’’. 

Though it would be a lie to say she didn’t benefit from that in court more often than not. She had figured out long ago that most men were easily intimidated by that. It was fairly useful in certain situations to be able to well and truly loom over most people in her heels. 

The downside, of course, being that most women were also a little put off by her height. 

She clicked the link and it pulled up the site and her PM’s. 

There were four unopened messages and she scanned the shortlist for a moment, eyes settling on the first message and next to the sender, rather than a real name was a screen name.

 _“GottaxGetxThatxGucci”_

She deleted it without even opening it. 

The next had an actual name and she clicked it. 

_“Hi, I took the liberty of doing your chart and since you’re a Capricorn, I think we could really have something. Have you ever tried sunrise Yoga?”_

Eyebrows furrowed further and further together as she read the message a second time., squinting at the screen.

“What?” She mumbled, cocking her head. 

She didn’t scrutinize over it for too long before hitting the delete button and moving on, though now with more trepidation than before at what the last two messages might hold. 

Looking at the sender she squinted at the man’s name staring back at her, and not one that could double as a woman’s name. Her curiosity got the better of her and she clicked it. 

_“Hey, I was looking at your profile and saw that you identify as agnostic/lesbian, have you ever considered looking for the right congregation? I would be happy to help you find one that’s right for you and help you learn to embrace God and his plan for all women. :)”_

Jaune steepled her fingers in front of her and breathed heavily through her nose, the tension behind her eyes starting to throb the longer she looked at the screen. She stood abruptly and marched over to the windows, hands clasped behind her back and staring out the glass at the sprawling city around her before closing her eyes letting out a long, hard breath.

_‘Count down from ten…’_

There was a brief knock on the office door before Daisy let herself in, tablet at her side.

“Ms. Roche…,” she started before seeing her boss standing at the windows, back straight as a rod and shoulders bunched up almost to her ears. “...Is this a bad time?” She shifted from foot to foot, clutching her tablet to her chest.

“No…. what is it, Daisy?” The exasperated tone was clear. She turned around to look at her assistant, despite the less than thrilled expression on her face as she walked back over to her desk and sat down in the black, leather, high backed chair. 

Amber eyes flickered to her laptop screen and quick as lightning, deftly smacked the top down, closing it before looking back up at her expectantly. 

Daisy cleared her throat and stepped into the room propper.

"These finished contracts were just delivered…

~ ~ ~ ~

Celeste was starting to have serious doubts about online dating.

She didn’t care how the site promoted itself as being for ‘Adult professionals’ It may as well have been Tinder with the number of messages she had gotten in two days that fell under one of three categories:

Hookups/nudes

Threesomes with other couples

Finally, men who were convinced they could ‘change her mind’ 

She frowned as she kneaded dough, perhaps a bit harder than was necessary if the way the table jiggled was any indication. 

She sighed and dropped the thoroughly abused ball of dough into a bowl before wiping her hands off on her apron. 

She’d sent a few messages herself and while most conversation’s started off normally enough they quickly devolved into sometimes strange and usually inappropriate territory. 

She shook her head, trying to put the strangeness from the weekend behind her.

The bells attached to the door at the front of the shop chimed merrily but instead of Sky quietly greeting the customer she heard the slapping of flip-flops on the wood floors and her mood instantly brightened as she turned to kitchen’s entrance just in time for her nephew to come skidding into view.

“Hi, Aunt Celeste!” He wrapped his arms around her in a tight squeeze, making her smile even brighter.

“Hello to you as well, Steven.” She wrapped her arms around him and laid a kiss to the crown of his head. “How, was school, love?” she asked, helping him pull the cheeseburger shaped backpack off his shoulders.

“Great, I got a new book to read!” He grinned up at her, showing off a new gap in his smile.

“What happened to your tooth?!” she knelt down and prodded at the boy’s face with gentle fingers and wide, horrified eyes. Her accent thickened with her panicked words and Steven wasn’t entirely sure what she’d said as he looked at her quizzically while she gently held his chin in one hand and moved his lip with the other. 

“He wiggled it till it fell right out of his mouth at school,” Rose said as she walked into the back, her own bag slung over her shoulder. “It was just a baby tooth,” she chuckled. 

“Yeah! I’m gonna leave it for the tooth fairy tonight.” He smiled up at her.

“Why don’t you go show your dad?” Rose suggested and Steven nodded enthusiastically before disappearing up the stairs.

“How was school for you?” She turned to Rose after the boy had vanished. 

She shrugged and slid her bag off her shoulder and set it on the floor before hopping up to sit on the empty counter in front of Celeste’s workstation.

“Another day with a class of kindergartners,” she smiled. “You either end up cleaning up vomit or you don’t,” she laughed at the face Celeste was making. 

“So, how did it go this weekend? Set up any dates?” she asked, trying to suppress any giddiness she felt. She’d been dying to know ever since she’d left her sister’s apartment Saturday night.

“Not hardly,” Celeste scoffed, pulling a tray of hot cookies out of the oven and setting them on the counter.

“Why not?” Rose whined, slapping her palms on the granite counter-top. 

Celeste glanced at her over her shoulder and sighed before walking across the room where her laptop was sitting open to several orders they were working on. She opened a new tab and quickly opened up the dating site and her inbox before walking over and handing the device to her sister before going back to work.

“Just look at those.” 

Rose opened up the first exchange and giggled to herself.

“Ok, I’ve seen worse, but yes, this is a little strange,” she admitted. “When I’m not at work I spend a lot of time thinking about Antarctica, do you?” she read the message aloud with a snort.

“That is one of the more mild ones,” she acquiesced. “Keep going…” she suggested ominously. 

“Okay, this one started all good, until she asked you how often you masturbate…” Rose cocked a brow. “I notice that you answered… how often is ‘occasionally’ by the way?” she teased, watching her sister’s face turn three shades darker.

“Answering that was a mistake, she became much more invasive after…,” Celeste mumbled. The question had shocked her and she’d answered more out of surprise than anything. 

“I can see that…” Rose’s eyebrows were slowly rising into her hairline as she read more of the rather personal and invasive messages she’d received. “Let’s… move on…,” she mumbled. 

“The rest is rather mundane, but dead ends, nonetheless.”

“A lot of couples wanting a third…,” Rose hummed, scrolling through the inbox. “Oh, let’s not forget men who think they can turn you!” Rose looked up over the screen with a sneer. 

“I know…” Celeste rolled her eyes. 

Rose hummed to herself as she looked at the profiles of people that Celeste had started conversations with. 

“You need to aim higher,” she concluded.

“What exactly does that mean?” Celeste glanced at her over her shoulder as she scooped a new batch of cookies onto a tray.

“I mean, no offense to this woman who manages a McDonalds, if people want a service someone has to provide it, but you’re…” she flung out her hands searching for the right word. “...an actual professional, you have a business management degree and have your own store, you need someone whose business attire doesn’t include a paper hat and non slip shoes.” 

Celeste just rolled her eyes.

“Let’s see if we can find you a sexy doctor…” she said, scrolling through the list of profiles that popped up with her sister’s search parameters. 

“I didn’t realize ‘Sexy Doctor’ was a job title.” She turned around to smirk at her sister.

“It’s a specialty, it requires one more year of school,” she snarked right back, sticking out her tongue. 

“Are you certain you’re the one teaching the kindergartners?” she teased.

“Shut up,” she mumbled, scrolling through the different profiles.

“I want someone whose company I enjoy.” She stepped over and plucked the laptop from her sister’s fast scrolling hands. “Someone I have things in common with or can have real conversations with. I’m not concerned about their paycheck and honestly, I’m surprised you are considering when you met your husband he was living in his van,” she pointed out, setting the computer down on the other side of the kitchen, away from Rose.

“Yeah, well… I was a student with no money and he at least had a van,” she laughed, looking at some fixed point in the kitchen and smiling fondly to herself before looking back at Celeste. “I just don’t want someone to take advantage of you…”

“Don’t worry about me, I'm quite capable of taking care of myself,” she assured. 

~ ~ ~

Once she’d cleaned up from dinner she curled up on her couch in her favorite white cotton shorts and a sapphire blue tank top, laptop balanced on the arm of the couch as she deleted all the old messages. 

Her sister was well-meaning but didn’t have the first clue what Celeste found ‘sexy’. 

She hummed to herself as she scrolled through some profiles. 

Confidence was probably at the top of the list. Perhaps it sounded cliche but there was just something unquestionably attractive about someone who was… sure of themselves, didn’t let other’s opinions diminish their value of themselves. 

Something she strove for in herself, but she’d always been a little sensitive. It was a work in progress. 

She’d also learned the hard way before that it could be difficult to distinguish between confidence and arrogance, and even harder still to determine it through an online dating profile. 

She was mindlessly scrolling through the profiles when a flash of yellow caught her eye and she scrolled back up to look at a profile.

The profile photo was of a woman in a dark gray suit with a white dress shirt, her short yellow-blonde hair was combed in a neat wave atop her head and she had the sharpest features Celeste had ever seen. Cheekbones to nose were all steep angles and points, as was her jaw.

She was rather striking really. 

She tapped the icon to pull up her profile, skimming the bio.

_Jaune Roche_

She was only two years older than herself and lived in the city.

‘’Oh my… tall,” she mumbled to herself, finding height.

There were a few tidbits in her bio, she was a lawyer, which she could admit was impressive, other than that there wasn’t much to go off of but one thing did stick out to her. She attended Delmarva Law school. 

Most people that attended got their bachelor’s from Delmarva University since the schools were connected.

That was where Celeste had gotten her degree.

She could have been wrong of course but it seemed as good a place as any to start. 

Her hand hovered over the trackpad before tapping the little letter icon beneath her photo, opening a blank text field. 

She typed out a message and hit send before switching tabs back to some orders that had been placed over the course of the day.

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Jaune sat in bed, laptop sitting across her thighs as she read through some emails, just trying to forget that most of today had even happened.

Daisy must have sensed her foul mood when she dropped off those contracts because she had immediately delivered a fresh cup of coffee and then made herself scarce after that. 

She sighed to herself. If it wasn’t her mother getting her blood pressure up with surprise blind dates then she was doing it to herself, subjecting herself to strangers online with less common sense then most rocks had. 

She was typing out some notes to herself when something dinged. She scanned the open tabs and saw the little red circle with a ‘1’ in it on one tab.

Clicking it, The Authority page opened, showing she had one new unread message. She pursed her lips, she had had just about all she could handle of this website. Steeling herself she didn’t even look at the sender, she just opened the message. 

_“I saw in your bio that you went to Delmarva for law, did you go to DU before that?”_

She blinked at the actually normal question in surprise.

She glanced up at the sender.

_‘Celestine’_

She hummed and hit reply, typing out a response, and hitting send. Once it was gone she clicked the profile and the first picture was of a woman about her age, smiling at the camera in a dark blue dress that hugged all her cures and long silvery hair that framed a soft oval face and a pair of brilliantly blue eyes. 

_‘Oh...’_

~ ~ ~ ~

Celeste hummed as she jotted some notes down on a sticky note for a cake order when her laptop dinged

A new message.

She switched tabs

“Oh…” She had a reply. 

_“I did attend DU for most of the time it took me to get my bachelor's in legal studies, though I had to transfer and finish my last semester at Empire City State.”_

She quickly typed out a reply.

~ ~ ~ ~

Jaune was still looking over Celestine’s profile when the page alerted her to a new message. She quickly opened it. 

_“I thought you might have. Why did you transfer, if you don’t mind me asking?”_

Jaune tapped her fingers on the keyboard, typing out enough but without adding any names that may come back to bite her.

~ ~ ~ ~

_“I needed a class that only one professor taught and we had a fundamental… difference of opinion.”_

Celeste bit her lip, remembering a class she had taken only because she had to and that professor had been the only one to teach it. 

~ ~ ~ 

_“It wasn’t Professor Beryl’s Ethics class was it?”_

Jaune blinked at the question.

~ ~ ~ 

_“How did you know?_

Celeste smiled ruefully as she explained that she had to take his class as well for her degree in business management and only realized what a chauvinistic pig he was after it was too late to drop or transfer. 

~ ~ ~ ~

Jaune snorted at the apt description of the man she had nearly had a screaming match with in the middle of the quad with several dozen other students watching. 

She told the other woman as much, it was a matter of public record all things considered. In fact, it was probably floating around the internet right at that moment. Her shouting at him that he...

~ ~ ~

Celeste giggled to herself. She would have loved to see someone tell the old blowhard of an academic that he ‘knew as much about ethics as she knew about rocket science.’ 

A second message appeared only a minute after the first.

_“Your degree is in business management, what do you do?_

Celeste smiled as she typed.

~ ~ ~ ~

Jaune didn’t even bother switching tabs anymore, it only took Celestine a minute before she replied.

_“I own my own bakery in the market district…”_

~ ~ ~ 

They continued to exchange messages and little anecdotes till Celeste happened to catch sight of a clock and jerked forward.

 **“12:07 am”**

“Shit, I have to be up in three and a half hours!” She closed the laptop and began putting everything away and turned off the bedside lamp. 

~ ~ ~

After a few minutes with no response, Jaune glanced at the clock and realized herself how late it was, perhaps she could pick this back up tomorrow. They had been so engrossed in conversation that four hours had passed in the blink of an eye. 

Closing the device she shuffled beneath the sheets and hit the light, casting her room in darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Birthday to piinkstxrlight


	4. chapter 4

God, she was tired.

Three and a half hours was definitely not enough sleep.

Sky didn’t mention it, but she seemed to notice how tired she was and picked up the slack, not that even as tired as she was she let herself fall too much behind. Luckily there weren’t any large or high priority orders due for a few days. She’d just need to make sure to go to bed at the proper time tonight. 

Now if she could just stop yawning.

The bakery was crowded at lunch time, keeping her busy for several hours with restocking the displays and starting new batches in the back, while helping Sky ring up and hand out orders. 

The day simultaneously seemed to both drag and fly by. 

It wasn’t until later in the afternoon when the lunch rush had gone that she realized she had never replied to Jaune’s last message or said she was getting off last night.

Hopefully, she didn't think that she didn't want to talk to her anymore, she most certainly did. She had a hard time remembering the last time she had been so genuinely interested in everything someone had to say. 

With Sky watching the front, she had a spare minute. She walked over to her laptop, sitting open on the far counter and pulled up the site to see she had a few new messages from some new people which she ignored, in favor of opening her chat with the blonde lawyer, her last message still sitting, unanswered. 

She quickly typed out a message and closed the site the second it confirmed it was sent and focused on the orders she needed to be working on.

When Steven and Rose walked through the kitchen after school she could tell by the way Rose was looking at her that she knew something was up. 

“You look… really tired…” She frowned after sending Steven upstairs with a juice box and a cookie. 

“I only got three hours of sleep last night,” she admitted, turning around to flour a set of round cake pans for the birthday cake order they were starting.

“You usually go to bed before Steven, what were you doing up so late?” she teased. An exaggeration of course, but not by as much as she would have liked. 

“I got carried away… sketching out some designs and working on a recipe for something I want to try out in the store,” she lied.

“Well, you better go to bed on time tonight, young lady.” Rose wagged a finger at her with a laugh before stealing a cookie for herself and going upstairs.

Celeste relaxed once the kindergarten teacher had vanished up the stairwell. 

She didn’t want to tell Rose she had stayed up much too late talking to a woman on the dating site. She’d get herself all worked up about it, and really, there was nothing to be worked up about. They had talked for a while. A very nice talk, in her opinion, but hardly anything worth mentioning. Especially to her sister, who would blow it out of proportion. 

She’d always been the more excitable one. 

~ ~ ~ ~ 

How many cups of coffee had she had this morning? Jaune wondered to herself as she filled up her empty mug for probably the sixth time before sitting herself back at her desk and opening her email 

She’d finally switched off her computer at midnight but had ended up lying awake for a while, thinking about her new… acquaintance.

She thought for a long while, trying to remember the last time she’s had such a personable conversation with anyone. Most days her mother was the only one she could trust to be frank with her, though that came with its drawbacks. 

Criticism and theatrics, usually. 

Her mother loved her, even if it was in her own strange, dramatic way… that could drive Jaune up a wall. 

It was just nice to have an actual conversation with someone who didn’t have expectations of her. 

Unlike every other conversation, phone call, or email she had.

Like the email she was looking at right now, from an irate woman she had declined to represent last week for breaking her probation. 

The firm didn’t even do criminal law. They specialized in corporate, family, and commercial law. Something this woman refused to understand, but Jaune could easily understand how this woman could be arrested and unknowingly break nearly all the stipulations that came with her probation.

She grunted to herself and deleted the email before even reaching the end. She had already been more than clear in her last email that she didn’t practice criminal law and couldn’t help her, even going as far as to recommend a colleague that could. 

She rolled her eyes and took a long drink of plain black coffee. She still had a few hours left before they closed up for the day and she actually had most of her things in order. She just needed to drop a few certified letters into the mail for a few clients with their updated contracts. She’d hand them off to Daisy in a bit.

Clearing her work email of all the most pertinent documents she switched to her personal email where she had a few emails alerting her to messages. 

She hummed and opened the website, seeing several new ones, which didn’t interest her in the slightest. She scrolled through the list till her eyes fell on her conversation with Celestine and saw it highlighted, alerting her to a new message.

She tapped it, not at all eagerly... 

_"I’m sorry for suddenly disappearing last night, I didn’t realize how late it was. I have to be up at 3:30 am to get things in the shop started.”_

She cringed inside at the idea of getting up that early. six was quite early enough for her, though she had a tendency to keep late hours as it was. 

She also realized that meant she had only slept about three hours and Jaune felt strangely guilty about that. 

She hit reply and sipped on her coffee as she mulled over her response before she started typing, hitting send just as Daisy popped her head into the office. 

“Ms. Roche?”

“What is it, Daisy?” she asked, a brow hiked up at her PA’s nervous expression.

“Um, Mrs. Roche is here to see you...” 

Jaune sighed and took a deep swig of her coffee as she stood from her desk, closing her laptop.

“Send her in,” she grunted, vaguely wishing she had some whiskey to add to this cup. 

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Celeste didn’t get a chance to check her computer until she was doing her last walk-through of the kitchen, turning off lights, double checking that everything was as she would need it in the morning. 

She went over to pick up the device once she was satisfied with the state of the kitchen and noticed the little red circle on one of the tabs indicating that she had a message. 

She may or may not have walked a bit faster up the stairs than usual with the device tucked securely beneath her arm. 

She sat it on the coffee table while she changed and heated up leftovers from the night before. Once she was sitting on the couch, plate atop one knee, she opened up her messages, finding Jaune’s reply to her earlier message. 

_“I lost track of the time myself, but I apologize for keeping you so long. I don’t have to be awake as early and keep late hours often, usually working.”_

Celeste smiled to herself as she read the message, taking a bite of her dinner. And reaching to hit reply, fork hanging out of her mouth as she started to type but paused, unsure before finishing the message and hitting send, hesitating only a second. 

~ ~ ~ 

Jaune yawned as she laid in bed, flipping through the channels on the tv, not really paying attention to anything going on on the screen, eyes slowly starting to close when the open laptop lying next to her on the bed dinged and her eyes popped open. She pulled the computer closer and opened her ongoing chat with Celestine. 

_“Don’t apologize, I enjoyed talking with you. I’ll survive one night. ”_

Jaune would never admit to the sudden dip in her stomach as she read the message. Sitting up she set it on her lap and started typing. 

~ ~ ~ 

On Friday morning Jaune sat in her office, staring at her phone and the open text field where she had typed a short message.

Her foot tapped anxiously on the floor, she had a meeting in five minutes and had spent the last fifteen trying to decide if she was going to send this message or not. 

She huffed to herself, this was ridiculous. She was thirty-three not sixteen... 

Yet her thumb continued to hover uncertainly over the send button.

Daisy popped her head into the door, alerting her that it was time for her meeting.

“I’ll be there in a moment,” she mumbled before Daisy left.

She stood and finally smashed her thumb against the send button before slipping the device into her pocket and straightening her blazer before leaving her office. Trying to ignore the tingling nerves under her skin. 

~ ~ ~

She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket but ignored it as she finished drizzling chocolate over little squares of butterscotch fudge. 

Butterscotch bites.

She smiled to herself at the perfect little squares. Her signature creation, and the shop's name sake. 

When she was satisfied she took the tray out front for Sky to fill the display case before finally pulling her phone out of her pocket as she walked back into the kitchen. Smiling involuntarily to herself when she saw the notification from the Authority app. A message from Jaune. 

With a flick of her thumb the app opened and she hit the message. 

_“Would you like to meet?_

Celeste stopped, staring at the message for the better part of five minutes. Honestly, the oven could have burst into flames and it was a toss up on whether or not she would notice as she stared hard at her phone. 

Jaune wanted to meet.

The prospect was both exciting and terrifying at the same time. 

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t very curious about what the woman would be like in person, she wanted to meet but, well, nervous was one way of putting it.

Not only because she couldn’t hide behind her screen and carefully think about what she wanted to say but also that this woman she was growing rather fond of might not be what she expected.

She pursed her lips and stared down at her phone.

“Hey, Celeste!” 

The baker nearly jumped out of her skin at the close greeting, whipping around to find her brother in law grinning sheepishly at her.

“Sorry! Sorry.” Greg waved a hand. “I didn’t mean to startle ya.” 

“It’s alright, Greg. I didn’t hear you come down is all. Where are you headed?” she asked, slipping her phone into the pocket of her apron. 

“I got a gig tonight at that new club that just opened last week, I gotta go setup all the sound stuff though, make sure it’s ready.” He grinned.

“Hopefully it goes well.” She smiled at the thirty year old guitar player. His hair was starting to thin on the top, though it was longer than hers in the back. 

“Heh, me too…” He scratched the back of his head, looking off to the side. “Are you okay?” He suddenly asked, looking back at her.

“Me?” She blinked.

“Yeah, you looked almost sick there, staring at your phone, everything okay?” He looked genuinely concerned and it was times like this that Celeste could see some of what made her sister fall so in love with the man. He was a big goofball but he was sincere and caring to a fault.

She bit her lip, considering.

“Can I tell you something, Greg?” She finally asked.

“Of course!”

“Did Rose tell you about signing me up on an online dating site?” 

“Oh, yeah. Still no luck?” He frowned.

“Actually, no, I’ve been talking to someone all week. She’s a very nice lawyer, actually.” The corners of her mouth twitched upward. 

“That’s great, right?” He didn’t seem sure with the way she had been looking at her phone.

“Yes, but… she wants to meet,” she explained.

“Afraid she might be a serial killer?” 

“What!? No! I just… I’m growing rather fond of her, truth be told, I’m afraid it may not be like I imagine…,” she confessed.

“Well, the way I see it, you can either take a chance, and maybe you’ll be disappointed, or not meet her, and never know." He shrugged but smiled reassuringly at her.

She laughed under her breath and smiled.

“Straight to the point, eh? Thank you, Greg.” She smiled.

“No prob.” He grinned as he started for the front, but stopped when she reached out, setting a hand on his shoulder.

“Oh, Greg? I hate to ask this of you, but please, don’t tell Rose about this… You know how she gets and there’s really nothing to tell her at this point.” 

“Ehhh, yeah. She’s been kind of excitable about it since she told me… You got it.” He shot her a finger gun before walking out. 

She could hear him greet Sky before the bell above the front door jingled, signaling his departure. 

She pulled out her phone and opened Jaune’s still unanswered message.

~ ~ ~ 

“I need you to send a copy of this cease and desist out immediately to the client and their supplier." Jaune handed a folder over to Daisy, who was trailing behind her back to her office, taking rapid fire notes on her tablet as her boss rattled off a list of people, what they needed and when they needed it.

She felt her phone vibrate in her slacks pocket and grunted. Her mother had sent her three text messages in as many minutes, asking if she'd like to have dinner with her. Though she promised it would be just the two of them.

She dug the device out of her pocket, intent on telling her mother that she would call her after work but paused, seeing the notification from the authority app made her pause midstep. 

Causing Daisy to slam right into her back. She just barely managed to keep hold of the device and stay on her feet.

"I-I'm so sorry Ms. Roche, I.."

Jaune was barely listening though.

"It's fine, Daisy, just take those documents, I need to take this," she mumbled distractedly before walking quickly to her office and sitting at her desk when the message finally popped up.

_“I’d like that. Do you like coffee?”_

Jaune glanced at the empty to go cup of coffee sitting on her desk, next to her empty coffee cup and she knew if she looked in the wastebasket by her desk there would be a few other used to go cups.

Like or need? 

The jury was still out on that one.

She settled for a simple ‘yes’.


	5. chapter 5

Sunday morning Celeste got up and dressed as usual, but there was a certain nervous excitement that permeated everything she did. 

She and Jaune had agreed to meet at ‘The Daily Grind. The cafe just next door to the bakery, though Jaune didn’t know that. 

It would give her some familiar turf, and she knew the majority of the staff, on the off chance that she needed help extracting herself from the situation. 

They weren’t meeting till ten and it was only nine-thirty but she still found herself already sitting inside the cafe, sipping nervously on a mug of black tea. For a Sunday morning, there were a number of people in the cafe this morning, having coffee and chatting. The quiet den of people helped put her somewhat at ease.

She’d decided that jeans and a pale blue blouse, that she didn’t get to wear near often enough, would be alright. She scuffed her flats across the floor. She just couldn’t help all the twitchy nervous energy. She absent-mindedly curled a lock of silvery hair around her fingers. This wasn’t even a date per se... they were just... meeting for coffee. 

Did Jaune think it was a date? 

Bloody hell, at this point she wasn’t even sure what this was. She was in that weird limbo where she was fond of someone but didn’t know them well enough yet to say if she really liked them or not. They had talked quite a bit over the last week but it wasn’t the same as meeting. 

Wasn’t that why people went on dates though? 

While she was mulling this over she didn’t notice or even look up when the bell over the front door jingled. 

A few minutes later she felt a presence nearby followed by a soft clearing of a throat. 

“Celestine?” 

She jumped, turning to look up at the blonde now standing a few feet away with a mug in one hand. 

She really was quite tall. 

“Can I sit?” she asked after a second and Celeste felt a flash of embarrassment shoot through her.

“Ah, I’m sorry, of course, please.” She gestured to the empty seat. 

She took a brief moment to really look at her companion as she situated herself in the chair across from her

Her profile had certainly been accurate. She was tall and lean, the angularness of her features was not contained to just her face, but the rest of her as well was squared with an almost sharpness to it. Short, bright blonde hair, that Celeste couldn’t quite tell if it were real or dye was combed neatly into a smooth wave atop her head and she had sharp amber-colored eyes. 

She was wearing black slacks with a white button-down tucked into them, the top two buttons left undone, revealing pronounced collar bones and the sleeves rolled just above her elbows. 

“I feel a little underdressed,” she admitted with a nervous smile as Jaune took a sip out of her cup.

Those amber eyes widened and she spluttered a little on the hot coffee.

“Please, don’t. This is about as casual as I ever get any more,” she admitted, running a hand through her hair. 

Her companion seemed just as nervous as she felt and it dulled some of her own nerves.

“Semi-formal is your casual?” she asked, a teasing lilt to her voice and was delighted at the hint of pink that seemed to crawl across Jaune’s cheeks. 

”I think it would be more accurate to call it business-casual…,” she mumbled, embarrassedly, glancing off to the side.

Celeste couldn’t help but laugh, causing those eyes to slide back to her. 

“I knew ‘Carrick’ was Irish, but I didn’t expect the accent,” she stated, leaning back and crossing one long leg over the other before taking a long drink of her coffee. 

“Ah, It was much thicker when I was younger. When we first moved here my sister and I were often teased for it.”

“People are like that.” Jaune hummed, the tone was sympathetic. “It’s lovely.” 

It was Celeste’s turn to feel the heat creeping up her neck at the compliment. 

“Thank you…” She took a sip of her tea, if for no reason then to give herself a moment while she collected herself. “I almost expected you to have a french accent.” 

Jaune barked a laugh at that. It was rough and sharp, but the sound seemed perfectly in place coming from the blonde, and Celeste couldn’t help but smile.

“Ah, yes, no,” she snorted. “My family’s ancestry is French, but that was generations ago. Which is fine, I prefer my words to have a normal amount of vowels.” she smiled behind her cup when the baker laughed.

Celeste was so caught up in her companion that she didn’t notice the family of three walking past the cafe outside.

“How much pancake mix do you think we’ll need?” Greg looked at his wife, their son on his shoulders as they locked the bakery’s front door behind them. 

“I think one bag should be enough for the three of us,” she hummed as they walked past the cafe. She glanced into the shop but did a double-take and stopped. “ What’s Celeste…” she started but quickly changed gears. “Who is that?” 

Greg leaned around his wife to look into the windows of the cafe. Sure enough, his sister-in-law was sitting at a table in the back, a mug in hand and smiling brightly at a tall blonde woman sitting across from her. It only took a second for him to realize it must be the woman she’d met on the dating site.

The one she didn’t want her sister to know about.

Rose started toward the cafe’s door and Greg jerked.

“Rose, wait!” He grabbed her hand before she could go inside.

“What, what’s wrong, I just want to... pop in real quick…," she mumbled trying for the door again.

“No” Greg gently pulled her away. “She’s…,” he started and had to think fast as his wife leveled a look at him that clearly said she could see her sister in the cafe with a woman and she was going to investigate it if he didn't come up with a damn good answer. “That’s… her lawyer!” he finally said.

“Her lawyer?” Rose repeated, eyes wide.

“Yeeees,” he drawled, stalling while he thought, Steven tugging at his hair was not helping. “She told me the other day she was meeting with a lawyer, for some, you know, legal stuff for the bakery. We shouldn’t bother her when she’s doing business stuff,” he reasoned. 

Rose hummed, looking through the glass. The other woman was certainly dressed like a lawyer. Much too formal for a date in a coffee shop. 

“You’re right. She can tell me about it later,” she agreed as they moved past the shop. Greg let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding as he followed behind Rose to the market. 

The two were still sitting inside nearly forty minutes later when the three walked back by and showed no signs of moving. Greg hoped that was a good sign. 

~ ~ ~ ~

“Surely she can’t be all that bad?” Celeste laughed at the look on Jaune’s face after one of the many stories she had about her mother doing something terribly embarrassing when she was a child.

“Yes, she can.” Jaune insisted gruffly. “The problem is she doesn’t even realize she’s doing it,” she grumbled. 

“She certainly sounds… like a character,” she finally settled on, resting a chin in her palm, smiling when Jaune chuckled.

“Straight out of Shakespeare,” she agreed. 

“My sister may be just as dramatic, though, in a different way.” Celeste glanced in the direction of the bakery, where the rest of her family was. 

“I’m sorry,” Jaune said, the tone was serious but the twitch in her lips indicated otherwise.

“Can I get you another cup of tea, Celeste?” A waiter paused at their table. 

“Ah, no, thank you, Tom.” She smiled at the boy.

He turned and indicated to Jaune’s cup questioningly. She held up a hand.

“No, thank you.” He nodded and left. “You seem to be quite well known here.” she turned back to Celeste, who gave a little shrug.

“My bakery is… nearby,” she hedged. Jaune nodded.

“I’m not that familiar with this part of town, so I’ve never had the pleasure, though, to be honest, I’m not much of a sweets person. My mother didn’t allow that kind of stuff when I was a kid, so I never really developed a taste for it.” 

“Perhaps you've just never had anything good."

"Perhaps not," she admitted.

"Would you like to?" she asked, cocking her head.

"Huh?" 

Celeste smiled. The confused face the lawyer was making made her grin.

"Would you like to try something good?" she asked again.

"Something of yours?" she clarified.

"Yes, something of mine." Celeste couldn't keep the laughter out of her voice at having caught her companion off-guard.

It was becoming clear to her that those lovely blue eyes had a way of throwing her off-kilter, but Jaune was nothing if not adaptable, part of the trade. 

"You seem awfully confident in that assertion." Her smirk widened into a grin when Celeste sat up straighter, obviously not going to take the teasing comment sitting down.

"I am” 

“Lead the way” She held out a hand as they stood from the table. She threw some money down on the table and followed Celeste to the door.

“How far is it?” she asked as they stepped outside into the warm sunlight.

“Oh, not far,” Celeste mumbled, pulling her keys out of her pocket and walking the ten feet to her own front door.

“Obviously not…” Jaune drawled, cocking a brow as she stopped and began opening the door. “When you said nearby, I didn’t realize that meant next door.” 

“I didn’t say it wasn’t next door, though.” she quipped, stepping into the shop with Jaune at her heels. The jingling bells heralding their arrival to the dark and quiet shop. 

“Fair enough…” she said, looking around the shop. It was clean and had a nice, homey feel to it. The white linoleum floor and stainless steel display cases shined with the light bouncing in through the front windows. The walls were painted a pale blue and held framed photographs or pastries and flowers. 

“It’s very nice.” she turned back to Celeste, who had been watching her look around from the corner of her eye, 

“Thank you. You’re not allergic to anything are you?” 

“Not unless you put bees in your baked goods,” she said with a grin that was mirrored back.

“Wait right here.” Celeste held up a finger before disappearing into the back, leaving her standing in the middle of the shop.

They had a few things made up, but she knew exactly what she wanted the blonde to try. She stepped into the walk-in, missing the sound of little feet in the stairwell and padding out of the kitchen.

Jaune was still admiring the shop when movement out of the corner eye made her turn, but instead of Celeste, a small, dark, curly-haired boy of about six was starring at her with wide eyes from behind the display case, a piece of paper clutched in one tiny fist. 

“Um, hello?” 

“Hi, I’m Steven.” He moved closer and smiled at her but his face morphed into awe as he came to stand at her feet. “You’re tall…,” he said, looking up at her.

“So I’ve been told… Where did you come from?” She looked around. 

More importantly, did Celeste have a son? Surely she would have mentioned it already if she did. 

“Upstairs” He pointed up.

Before Jaune could say anything Celeste came out of the back and immediately saw the boy.

“Steven! What are you doing down here?” She quickly walked up to them.

“Hi, Aunt Celeste!” He smiled brightly and wrapped his arms around her legs. Jaune let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. “I heard the bells,” he explained. “ I wanted to show you my drawing.” He held up the piece of paper for her and she smiled, looking at the crayon drawing of a large pink… lion maybe? 

“That’s very nice, love, but why don’t you go back upstairs before your mother comes looking for you, I’ll come by later and you can show me, alright?” She smiled at him.

He nodded and turned back to Jaune and waved.

“Bye” with that he trotted away into the back. 

“I’m sorry about that…” Celeste started. 

“No need to be sorry.” She shook her hand. “Your sister’s son?”

“Yes, Steven. He’s a sweetie. Speaking of… here.” She held out a small maybe one inch square on a piece of parchment paper. It was a golden-brown color with chocolate drizzled over the top. 

“This is a butterscotch bite,” she explained as Jaune reached up to take the treat. Their fingers brushed and both had to suppress a sudden tingle.

Jaune popped the treat into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. 

Celeste watched her face and couldn’t help but smile brightly as the blonde’s eyes widened and her eyebrows shot into her hairline. 

“You have every right to be confident. That’s… really good.” Jaune finally said after she’d swallowed.

“Thank you.” 

Before she could say anything else a loud chiming filled the air, startling them both.

Jaune dug her phone out of her pocket and hit a button, a severe frown marring her face.

“My apologies, I didn’t realize what time it was, I have some work I need to finish before tomorrow.”

“Ah, of course, I’ll walk you out.” Celeste followed behind her. “It was very nice to finally meet you,” she said as they stepped outside the shop into the warm sun.

“The pleasure was entirely mine.” Jaune smiled and Celeste felt her stomach roll. “Celestine…” She started and automatically Celeste cut her off.

“Celeste,” she corrected. “Only my parent’s ever called me Celestine,” she chuckled and the corners of Jaune’s mouth twitched upward at the sound.

“Celeste…” she corrected and tried not to shift around too much. “Would... you like to have dinner with me next weekend?” she asked after a second but it felt much longer to them both.

“I’d love too,” she answered quickly and immediately felt an embarrassed heat rise up her neck at the eagerness but if Jaune noticed she made no indication.

They exchanged numbers and then the lawyer was gone, walking down the street.

Celeste closed and locked the door behind her and for the life of her couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as she made her way upstairs, feeling absolutely giddy.

Maybe whatever today had been was up in the air but there was little doubt in her mind that Saturday night, she had a date.

With a witty and attractive blonde at that.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice the open door of her sister’s apartment.

"Celeste!" 

The baker jerked to stop in front of the open door where her sister appeared. 

"How was your meeting with the lawyer?" she asked and Celeste froze.

"You knew about that?" 

Suddenly Greg was standing in the doorway behind her sister making a slashing motion at his neck.

"Greg told me this morning when we were passing by the cafe, we saw you with your lawyer, having coffee. What did you need to see a lawyer about?"

"Ah, yes… I have been thinking about… maybe expanding the business and I just thought I might consult a lawyer about it first, nothing concrete yet." she managed to make up a story out of thin air. 

"Oh, I didn't know you were thinking about expanding the bakery." Rose crossed her arms and leaned against the door jam.

"As I said, nothing's been decided yet. Right now I do have to go upstairs and finish a few things though." she excused herself and Rose nodded just as Steven called out from another room.

"I better go see what all that's about." She rolled her eyes with a smile and hurried away. Greg stepped out into the hall.

"We saw you this morning having coffee with your… friend and she wanted to go in, I guess I just remembered that you said she was a lawyer so I said you were having coffee with a lawyer for business reasons," he explained quietly with a grimace.

She reached out and laid a hand on his arm.

"It's perfectly fine, Greg. Thank you."

"So…. How'd it go?" 

Celeste smiled and Greg grinned 

"That well, huh?" he chuckled and Celeste nodded.

"We're having dinner next Saturday," she admitted and he only smiled wider. "But I really do have some things I need to go finish before the day is over. Thank you again, Greg."

"Don't mention it,” he called watching his sister-in-law hurry up to the third floor and he wondered if she realized just how wide she was smiling at that moment. 

If Rose saw that face there was no way she’d believe whatever story they made up for her. 

~ ~ ~

Despite the work she very much needed to do, Jaune sat in her car for the better part of fifteen minutes just trying to come to grips with her morning. 

Celestine Carrick was just as lovely as her photos would have one believe, but they belied the charming and vivacious woman she was and Jaune had not been prepared. Not for that soft lilting accent nor those piercing blue eyes. She was beautiful and Jaune felt like a hot mess from the first moment she’d laughed till she’d left. 

She’d somehow managed to pull herself together long enough to ask her on an actual date, and she’d said yes.

Taking a deep breath, she started her car. It was going to be a long week leading up to Saturday. She still needed to decide exactly where she was going to take Celeste.

She also needed to come up with something to say to her mother, who had wanted to drag her to the opera with her on Saturday. 

A later problem.

She flexed her fingers against the leather of the steering wheel and ran her tongue over her teeth.

She could still taste chocolate and butterscotch.

Despite a life relatively free of sweets, she found herself already craving more.


	6. Chapter 6

Celeste couldn't remember a longer week, for multiple reasons besides her anticipation of Saturday. 

She had plenty of orders to fill, so there wasn't a lot of downtime to start with, especially after a specialty order cake had collapsed on itself and she had no choice but to start over from scratch, forcing her and Sky to work well into the night on Tuesday and Wednesday to keep up with everything that had to be pushed back while it was redone, but by Friday morning everything was righted and back on schedule.

When she did have a spare minute she would text or reply to a message Jaune had sent her, which both fortunately and unfortunately only seemed to be around lunchtime or after work. She imagined the lawyer kept a rather hectic schedule herself based on what little she knew about her work. 

It was becoming apparent now that they had met in person that the lawyer had a rapier wit and a very dry, sarcastic sense of humor, as well as not much tolerance for those without common sense. 

Speaking of… 

She was just now sitting on her couch for the evening when she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She smiled involuntarily when she saw the notification from Jaune and quickly swiped it open.

_"Have you ever been to The Beach Front?"_ It read.

She'd certainly heard of it. It was a very nice American style restaurant just outside the city, they didn't have a dress code, but it would be ill-advised to show up in a t-shirt or jeans, and as the name suggested, it was right on the beach, It took up a large section of the pier overlooking the ocean.

She'd never been herself, but Greg and Rose had gone on their last anniversary and her sister had raved about the food and she'd wanted to try it, but had never had any occasion to go. It could be a little on the pricey side from what Rose had said. 

_"I haven't, but I've heard good things."_

She hit send and didn't have to wait more than a minute before her phone buzzed again.

_"So have I. Would you like to try it?"_

Celeste could feel herself smiling as she typed out her reply. Honestly, she didn't care where they ended up eating, so long as she got to spend the evening in Jaune’s company.

_"Sounds perfect. When should I meet you there?"_

It was maybe 45 seconds before she got a reply.

_"The bakery is on my way, I can pick you up if you'd like. 6 o'clock?"_

_"Yes, thank you. It's a date."_

After that, her phone went quiet for the evening and her mind wandered to other things, like when she was eventually going to tell her sister that she was tentatively seeing someone. 

She had a good idea of how that was going to go. The teacher would get all bent out of shape for a bit that she hadn't told her the second she started talking to someone online, but she'd get over it after a few hours of pouting. 

That being said, she'd probably still wait till it looked like this would go past one date first. 

She certainly had high hopes. It seemed she liked Jaune a little more every day. 

She hoped the feeling was mutual.

It seemed like it just might be, but it had been a while since she had dated. Over three years, but after that fiasco, she’d really needed the break anyway.

She’d forgotten how exciting it could be when you met someone you seemed to click with. 

There was a quiet little knock on her apartment door and she smiled, knowing who it was.

“Come in,” she called and about ten seconds later Steven walked into the living room in an oversized t-shirt and a blanket held tight in one fist dragging on the floor behind him.

“What are you still doing up?” she asked quietly as he looked up at her. 

“I can’t sleep,” he said, looking quite sleepy.

“Ah, that’s right you’re going to Funland tomorrow.” She remembered. He nodded. 

“Can I sit with you?” he mumbled.

“Of course you can, love” 

He pulled himself up onto the cushion and flopped against her. She smiled and ran her fingers through his curly hair while the tv droned on.

“You’re excited for tomorrow?” she asked and he nodded tiredly as she ran her fingers through his hair.

“Can I tell you a secret?” She looked down at him and he looked up at her, his mouth open like he was surprised she could have a secret, but he nodded.

“I’m excited about tomorrow too.”

“Are you coming with us?” he turned to better look at her.

“Not this time,love. Do you remember my friend last week, the really tall one?” He nodded. “She and I are going to dinner tomorrow night and I’m excited about it… but also a little nervous. I like her and I want her to like me,” she mumbled as she brushed some of the dark curls away from his face.

“I like you,” was his simple reply. 

A quiet breathy laugh pushed past her lips as she looked down at his sweet round face.

“And I love you.” She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Now let’s get you to bed.” She gathered him into her arms and started downstairs. 

~ ~ ~

As soon as she'd gotten off the phone with Celeste she'd made a call to the Beach Front to secure their 6:30 pm reservation, the place was notorious for filling up quickly on the weekends, or so she'd heard. 

She was quite pleased with herself, truth be told. Even if maybe she'd had to lie a little.

Truthfully the bakery was actually out of the way and she was closer to the restaurant, but it wasn't that much out of the way, so really, It was nothing Celeste would need to concern herself about.

Now she just needed to take care of her mother and considering that more often than not, despite her dramatic flair, her mother was nothing if not pragmatic.

The easiest way to get out of the opera would just be to tell her the truth. 

She had after all been hounding her to date.

She slid her phone into her pocket and climbed out of her car in her mother's driveway. 

Only the white Aston Martin was sitting in the driveway.

Good, The last thing she wanted was any more surprise run-ins with old family acquaintances. 

She let herself in and walked up the stairs to her mother's office.

The door was shut but she could see the light shining out from underneath the door and knocked.

"Yes, what is it, Penny?" Her mother's voice called out from the other side of the door.

"Not Penny this time." She smiled that she stepped inside to see her mother's wide-eyed, surprised face.

"Jaune! What are you doing here?" She stood and walked around her desk, letting the blonde lean down to kiss her on the cheek. Her height came from her mother though, so she didn’t need to lean far. Of course, right now her 5’10’’ mother was wearing slippers and she was wearing heels. 

It seemed her mother had just gotten out of the shower. She was wearing a fluffy white robe and her shoulder-length white hair was laying flat and slightly damp against her back, rather than poofed and primped as it usually was. She wasn’t wearing any makeup and the jagged scar in the center of her forehead was plainly visible. 

She preferred her mother like this, unexpecting, natural. Not playing at anything or putting on a show for friends and acquaintances. 

“I came to see you tonight because I can’t go to the opera with you tomorrow,” she said and her mother frowned.

“I know it's not your favorite activity but I ask so little of you, Sunshine.” Blanche huffed, crossing her arms and turning to walk back to her desk. “Your work won’t go anywhere in the course of one evening.” She sat in her chair and all Jaune could picture was a pouting child. Even as she poured herself a glass of brandy from the decanter sitting on her desk. 

“It’s not because I have work,” she started, rolling her eyes and walking up to the desk. “I have a date,” she finished. 

The glass stopped halfway to her mother’s lips.

“I’m sorry, I must have misheard you, dear, what are you doing tomorrow evening?” Her mother blinked at her, setting the glass back down and Jaune rolled her eyes. 

“I have a dinner date with a woman I met,” she clarified, crossing her arms and sitting on the couch that sat perpendicular to her mother’s desk. 

“That’s wonderful, Sunshine.” Blanche smiled, face lighting up at the news. “So tell me about this young woman you met.” She leaned forward eagerly and Jaune sighed internally, but she’d known that this was the trade-off for getting out of the opera.

“Her name is Celeste. We met on a dating website. Actually we’ve been talking for about two weeks now, we met and had coffee last Sunday. She owns a bakery on the west side of town.” She ran down some basics.

“That’s lovely…, but what is she like?” she stressed. Jaune leaned back in the seat and folded her hands in her lap.

“Mind you, we’ve haven’t been talking long and we’ve only met once for a couple of hours but…” she started and Blanche made a ‘yes and?’ motion with her hand. “She’s quick-witted... and charming, with this soft, dulcet, Irish accent.” she looked down at her folded hands. “She’s incredibly beautiful…with the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen.” she looked up and saw her mother looking at her with wide, surprised eyes and she felt herself turn pink.

“But… yes, I’m growing rather fond of her.” she cleared her throat and stood, brushing out the imaginary wrinkles in her shirt as she did. “So, I hope you’ll forgive me about the opera this time.” 

“Don’t worry about opera, Jaune. You have fun with your new paramour.” She smirked and Jaune turned red.

“Mother please, it’s a first date,” she sighed, rubbing at her temple.

“Didn’t you say you had coffee with her just last week?”

“Yes, but that wasn’t a date, we were just meeting, to see if we actually would like to pursue something.

“In my day we called that a date.” Blanch hummed, taking a drink from her glass.

Jaune scowled. 

~ ~ ~ 

Saturday was as busy as it usually was.

Celeste was rather glad for the distraction to be honest. Hopping around the bakery without pause to even breathe gave her little time to overthink and get herself worked up about her coming evening. That being said, it was still the usual exhausting Saturday, first thing in the morning and again at lunchtime, the shop was packed with people.

She was seriously considering her sister's idea of hiring part-time help, if not just to free up some of her own time but to take some of the load off her and Sky. 

When the crowd thinned out at last around two-thirty she sent Sky out on her lunch break. She herself nibbled on half a sandwich Rose left her in the walk-in before they had left for Funland early this morning. She often got so busy during the Saturday rush that she forgot to eat, something Rose was all too familiar with.

She took a bite and pulled her phone out of her pocket when it buzzed. She had two unopened messages from her sister. 

Opening them she smiled at the two photos of the three of them at Funland eating cotton candy and playing games and wished she could have gone, but Saturday was her biggest day and Sky couldn’t do it alone. 

Maybe she would have a’ now hiring’ sign printed up on Monday after all. 

After closing the photos she looked at her ongoing conversation with Jaune and hesitated a moment before opening it and typing a quick message.

_“Still on for tonight?”_

She slid it back into her pocket and went back to her sandwich as she restocked the display case with the latest batch of pastries and baked goods. 

A flash of light in the corner of her eye made her lookup. A car had pulled into the nearest parking spot in front of the bakery. 

The sunlight was bouncing through the front glass off its bright, pearlescent white paint. 

Normally she wouldn’t have taken much notice, but it was not a normal car. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it was definitely expensive.

The woman that got out of the car looked equally expensive.

She was older, perhaps sixty and dressed very nicely in a gray mid-length skirt and fitted white blouse. Her large dark sunglasses covered much of her face but her bright red painted lips stood out in stark contrast. It took only a glance to see that the white bag hanging off her shoulder was designer.

She entered the shop, the jingling bells heralding her arrival. 

“Welcome to Butterscotch Bites,” she greeted, putting her half-eaten sandwich under the counter and brushing the crumbs off her hands on her apron. 

“Good afternoon, dear.” The woman pulled off her glasses, revealing dark, wide eyes and smiled at her as she walked up to the counter. She was a little taller then Celeste and walked with an unarguable self-assuredness. 

“How can I help you?”

“I was recently recommended to this establishment by a colleague, tell me, what do you recommend?” she asked, sliding her sunglasses into her bag.

Celeste hummed as she moved to the back of the display cases.

“I can never recommend the butterscotch bites enough. Of all my recipes it's always been my favorite.” She pointed down at the tray of golden, chocolate drizzled fudge. 

“Oh, is this your shop?” she asked, but the way she said it lacked any of the surprise expected with the question. 

“It is.” Celeste smiled. 

“Marvelous, If they're good enough to name a shop I suppose I’ll have to try them, can I get a dozen?” Her voice was positively saccharine. 

“Of course.” Celeste nodded as she moved to pack the sweets into a little box for the woman she could feel her dark eyes following her, as though she was observing her, but she was smiling and seemed genuinely… pleased? 

Celeste wasn’t quite sure what to make of the elegant older woman. 

She took the woman’s card and couldn’t help but notice the diamond shaped brooch pinned to the breast of her blouse. A stylized 'R' engraved into its center.

“That’s a lovely brooch.” she complimented as she handed back the card. 

The woman’s eyes widened briefly in surprise before those blood red lips pulled into a gentle smile as she reached up to brush her fingers over the gemstone studded jewelry.

“Thank you, my late husband gave this to me.” The timbre of her voice changed as she said this, losing it’s sugar-coated tone and turning slightly more somber and Celeste immediately felt bad about bringing it up.

“Ah, I’m Sor-” 

The woman was waving a hand before she could even finish the apology. 

“Don’t worry yourself, dear.” 

Celeste handed her the wrapped box of treats. “Thank you.”

“Have a nice weekend.” The woman smiled that knowing smile again before she turned and left.

As far as strange interactions went she had had her fair share of far worse than that but something about the woman had seemed off, she just couldn’t put her finger on it. 

She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and pulled it out. A reply from Jaune.

_“Of course. I’ll see you at 6.”_

She smiled to herself and picked her sandwich up.

When Sky came back she forgot all about it the strange interaction with the white haired woman.

~ ~ ~

Celeste hummed to herself as she inspected her reflection in the mirror. 

The dress was a dark navy that stopped just below her knees, though the slit in the left side went up to mid-thigh. It hung slightly off her shoulders and dipped into a ‘V’ at her breast bone, perfectly framing the silver chain hanging around her neck with the help of her hair, laying flat against her shoulders and back. A black pair of heels that she’d had to dig through her closet for and clutch completed her outfit. 

The dress was hardly formal in style but she couldn’t help but wonder if she was overdressed. Rose had worn something of a similar style to the restaurant, but then again her sister could often be over the top at the best of times. 

She glanced at her clock.

5:52

Her decision was made. Picking up her keys she left her apartment, walking as quietly down the stairs as she could, lest she alert her sister to her leaving. Her heels were loud. At the bottom of the stairwell she let out a breath of relief as she walked into the kitchen.

“Wowza!” Greg’s voice suddenly filled the quiet.

She jumped, turning to see the rest of her family gathered around one of the ovens and a sheet pan.

Steven smiled at her while Rose and Greg looked at her with wide eyes. 

“What are you all doing down here?” 

“We're making cookies!” Steven helpfully supplied with a wide smile. 

“Our oven is broken, where are you going looking like a sweet treat yourself?” Rose turned to her, hands on her hips and she flushed at the description. 

“I…,” she stalled but it didn’t look like she was getting out of it this time. “I have a date.” 

“What!?” Rose squealed. Greg winced. “You have a date and you didn’t tell me? 

“This is only the second time we’ve met, I didn’t want you to make a big a deal out of nothing.”

“This is the second date you’ve been on!?” Rose wasn’t yelling but it was on the border. 

Before she could answer the sound of knocking came from the front of the shop and Celeste perked up. 

‘We’ll talk about it when I get back,” she said as she walked out to the front, heels clicking on the linoleum. 

“Have fun!” Greg called. Rose followed her sister to the front but hung back in the kitchen entrance.

A tall, familiar-looking blonde woman was standing outside the glass door in a pair of black slacks and a dark, mustard colored dress shirt tucked into them, beneath an open black blazer. She smiled when Celeste appeared. 

A golden yellow Mercedes was parked in the street in front of the shop. 

“The lawyer?” Rose mumbled to herself. 

Celeste unlocked the door and stepped out, looking up at the blonde. Even with her own heels and Jaune’s flat, black dress shoes she was still taller, though not by as much.

“Right on time.” Celeste smiled. 

“I can’t stand to be late,” she admitted. “You look gorgeous." The words all but left her mouth unbidden as she looked at Celeste. 

She knew she'd said the right thing though when the baker's cheeks flushed a rosy color.

"Thank you." She pushed a lock of sterling hair back behind her ear. "You look rather dashing yourself," she said, admiring the lawyers' clean and sharp appearance. She grinned and Celeste's heart did a quick double-tap in her chest. 

"Thank you. Are you rea…" she trailed off, looking at something over her shoulder.

Celeste turned around and did her best to suppress the sigh that threatened to escape her lips.

Rose, Greg, and Steven we're all peeking out from behind the doorway of the kitchen. 

"Your sister and her family?" Jaune took a guess.

"Yes… I didn't know they would be in the kitchen when I came downstairs." She rolled her eyes at them, at Rose and Greg anyway. "But yes, I'm ready to go." 

Jaune turned around and opened the passenger door on the car and Celeste smiled at her as she climbed inside.

It was very nice and certainly cleaner than her own car. While the inside of her own silver sedan often smelled of baked bread or sugar the blondes car had a distinct aroma of leather and coffee which did not surprise her.

Based on everything she knew so far that was a perfect summary of the lawyer. 

Jaune climbed in and started up the car, quickly pulling out into the Saturday night traffic.

The short drive to the restaurant was spent in quiet conversation over the low playing radio. 

It amazed Celeste that they could just pick up their conversations right from wherever they had left off in their messages.

The restaurant was already quite busy when they arrived and it took them a few minutes before they found a parking place, though it was at least not too far from the doors. 

The lobby was full of people waiting for tables and Celeste was suddenly afraid that they may not even get in considering how many people were sitting in the waiting area.

"It's an hour wait," someone standing nearby said helpfully.

Celeste grimaced at that.

Jaune just hummed as she walked up to the hostess stand.

"6:30 reservation, Roche." 

The woman scanned the appointment book for nodding with a smile and grabbing two menus.

"Right this way." She led them through the restaurant and right to the patio that overlooked the ocean. "Enjoy, ladies, your waiter will be with you soon." The hostess said before disappearing back inside the restaurant.

Celeste had to admit, one could hardly ask for a better setting for a date then this one.

Though all the tables on the patio were full they were spaced far enough apart to allow some semblance of privacy. The sun slowly going down over the ocean certainly didn't hurt the ambience. 

"My sister and her husband came here for their anniversary last year, so far, it's just as nice as I heard." She turned to Jaune who was flipping through her menu. 

"Some of my colleagues come here often and can never stop talking about the place after they do, I thought this might be a good opportunity to try it."

"Well, we can try it together then." She smiled. 

The waiter eventually appeared and took their orders. Despite the obvious busyness, it didn't take long for their food to come and they continued to talk trading stories from work. 

While her interactions with customers were rather tame the majority of the time, Jaune, on the other hand, had some very interesting stories.

"I think one of the dumbest things I've ever heard was when a man told me he wanted to divorce his wife because she had spent $70,000 on psychic hotlines." 

"Oh my god." Celeste balked and Jaune rolled her eyes at the memory.

"Evidently it was a waste of money If the psychics didn't tell her that that would happen." Jaune grinned when Celeste burst into peals of laughter.

It wasn't until halfway through dinner that a glint on the blondes blazer caught her eye.

It was a diamond-shaped brooch with a stylized 'R' engraved in its center.

"Your brooch…" Celeste pointed to the small piece of jewelry pinned to the lapel of Jaune's blazer.

Jaune looked up, fork still in her mouth, but looked down at the small piece of jewelry.

"It's funny I saw one that looked exactly like it today on a woman that came into the shop. It even had the 'R'," she said.

Jaune's eyes narrowed at that and she swallowed the bite she was chewing and carefully wiped her mouth before speaking.

"Was it an older woman, white hair, dressed much too lavishly?" she asked and obviously it was someone the lawyer knew based on the spot-on description.

"An acquaintance of yours?" She cocked a brow. 

Jaune sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"My mother," she finally grumbled. 

"Your mother?" Celeste blinked and Jaune groaned.

"She wanted me to go to the opera with her tonight, the easiest way to get out of that was to simply tell her I had a date, she asked about you, of course. However, I didn't think for one minute she would take that information to come harass you…," she scowled.

"Oh, no-no. She didn't harass me, she was very pleasant actually." Jaune cocked a disbelieving brow with that. "She came in, made a little small talk, bought some candy, and left." 

"I'm surprised." Jaune hummed, picking up her fork again. 

"The only reason I remember was that I complimented the brooch and she told me… her late husband gave it to her." She mumbled the last part, looking at the brooch pinned to Jaune's blazer. 

"Yes, my father had them made. Mine was A gift when I graduated from law school. He was a lawyer too. He died of a heart attack seven years ago and I inherited his practice and made it my own.

"I'm sorry. At least your parents supported what you wanted to do with your life." Celeste smiled, but it had it an undeniable tinge of sadness to it.

"Yours don't?"

Celeste glanced out over the ocean for a second before those blue eyes slid back to meet amber. 

"No, they didn't. In Ireland, my family was very poor. When my sister was a baby and I was only a toddler they sold everything to move here and have a fresh start," she explained. "What they really wanted was for me to go to school and get a high paying, successful, office job, like yours, to support the family."

"Those are unfair expectations…" Jaune frowned, her brows drew together between her eyes in clear annoyance, Celeste was touched by her companion's concern.

"Yes, well. They worked to pay for my school, only instead of culinary school as I had dreamed, it was for my degree in business management at Delmarva U. They refused to let me "waste my time and their money on such foolishness." So I never got to go.” 

Jaune leaned forward in her seat, elbows on the table as she listened to Celeste.

"So what do they think of your successful bakery, despite the fact that you never went to culinary school?" 

"I don't know, they both died in a car accident about ten years ago, Right after I graduated, I never had a chance to tell them what I had planned." 

"Oh. I'm sorry " she mumbled, unsure what to say or do now in the tenser atmosphere.

"It's alright." She took a sip of the dark red wine in her glass. "You were right..," she finally said after a moment.

"Oh, what about?" Jaune cocked her head curiously.

"Your mother really is an interesting character." She smiled, and it widened when Jaune chuckled. 

~ ~ ~

Three hours later Jaune pulled to a stop in front of the bakery and shut off the car, making it quiet.

"I had a wonderful time. Thank you for dinner, Jaune." She turned to her companion, clutching her bag in her lap, in no real hurry to get out of the car.

"It was my pleasure." The blonde assured her. "Perhaps, we could do this again?" The hint of hopefulness was clear in her voice and it would be a lie if Celeste didn't say she was pleased by the blonde's desire to see her again.

"Yes, I'd like that." She nodded. Jaune smiled and despite the sudden explosion of butterflies in her stomach she leaned over the center console and pressed a quick, featherlight kiss to the blonde's cheek.

When she pulled back, settling back down into her seat she couldn't help but giggle at those wide amber eyes and shocked expression. Pink wasn’t Jaune’s color, but it still looked nice splashed across her face.

"Goodnight, Jaune." she smiled to herself as she climbed out of the car.

"G-goodnight, Celeste," she called behind her. 

She waved and let herself into the shop. A few seconds later the car drove away. 

She couldn't help the wide, dopey grin on her face as she walked up the stairs.

Honestly, she couldn't remember the last time she’d had a better evening. 

"You're back!" 

Celeste nearly jumped out of her skin as her sister's apartment door slammed open just as she was passing by. 

"Rose, please!" She held a hand to her chest, waiting for her heart to go back to a normal rhythm.

"Well?" She fisted her hands on her hips. 

Celeste rolled her eyes.

"I'll tell you all about it in the morning," she said over her shoulder as she continued up the stairs.

"What?!" Rose shouted after her, standing in the hall and throwing out her arms. 

"In the morning, I promise," she laughed quietly at her sister's aggravated noises, but her mind was already drifting back to a certain blonde lawyer.

“Well?” Greg asked quietly, peeking into the hall at his wife.

“She looked stupidly happy.” She turned to him with a smile and Greg grinned back. 

~ ~ ~

Jaune smiled to herself all the way home.

Despite her earlier annoyance with her mother at going to the bakery for the sole purpose of checking out Celeste, nothing could damper her mood at the moment.

Her cheek still tingled where Celeste’s lips had been.


	7. Chapter 7

"I don't know…"

"Oh, come on, Celeste. She'd be perfect for the job." Rose insisted.

It was about 11:30 on Monday morning and since there was no school for some holiday or another Celeste couldn't remember, Rose and Steven had parked themselves in the bakery kitchen while she worked for the day.

Out of the two of them, it was the one that was expected to be in the way the least that was the most in the way.

Rose had plopped herself on an empty counter, talking about this and that while Steven sat in the corner at his spot, coloring quietly. 

She'd mentioned that she was going to start looking for a second assistant after talking it over with Sky who had agreed to oversee the new trainee when she couldn't.

Rose had immediately suggested a friend who was also a teacher and had been looking for some part-time weekend and evening work.

"She's a bona fide type A personality… honestly, she probably has OCD I think, either way, she'd be perfect for this," she insisted.

Celeste hummed noncommittally as she mixed together a batch of ingredients.

"At least talk to her. I really think she is what you're looking for." Rose wheedled.

"Fine, fine. If you give me her number I will call her," she finally acquiesced. 

Rose grinned and typed out the number on her phone and sent it to her sister who felt the device vibrate in her pocket and rolled her eyes, but said nothing. Sometimes it was just easier to give in to the exuberant younger woman’s whims than to fight it.

‘So…” Rose started, resting her chin in her palms and looking slyly over to her, and Celeste had a good idea of what was coming. “have you heard from your new girlfriend yet?” She grinned at the annoyed look on her older sister’s face, but especially at the faint pink color, her ears were turning. 

“I’m not sure I’d call her my ‘girlfriend’ just yet...” Celeste mumbled, starring much too intently into the bowl of batter she was mixing.”... and no, not yet.”

Rose hummed and kicked her feet back and forth.

“Maybe you should text her? Whose job is it to call first in a lesbian relationship?” She cocked her head curiously.

“Rose…” Celeste rolled her eyes. 

“What? I don’t know. Is there a guide to this?” she asked with a laugh.

“There’s a class. It’s extracurricular in college and if you fail you don’t get your lesbian license.” Celeste quipped as she moved to pour the batter into the prepared cake pans.

Rose stuck her tongue out at her back. 

“What exactly does that license qualify you to operate? A motorboat? 

"Oh my god!” Celeste turned to her, face a bright pink as Rose giggled uncontrollably. It took a good three minutes for her to stop looking at Celeste’s flushed face and not start all over again. Celeste turned and ignored the giggling school teacher until she had finished. 

“Heh, anyway, why don’t you text her? I thought you liked her?” 

“I do like her, but I also don’t want to come off overeager or something.” 

“There’s nothing wrong with letting someone you like know you like them and want to see them.” Rose’s voice turned more serious. Steven took the opportunity to trot over with a drawing.

“Look!” He held up the picture and smiled that gapped tooth smile. Showing them a stick figure with a mullet and guitar. “It’s dad.”

“That’s lovely, sweetie.” When he gets home this weekend you’ll have to show him.” She smiled, pinching his cheek and making him giggle. 

“This job lasts all week?” She asked, surprised. Rose nodded.

“He hates to be gone so long, but it pays well.” She frowned with a shrug. 

“He’ll be home before you know it.” Celeste smiled reassuringly at her sister who nodded.

It was then that Sky popped her head into the back.

“There’s a delivery in the lobby,” was all she said before disappearing back out front. 

“I don’t have any deliveries scheduled for today.” Celeste frowned, forehead wrinkling in confusion as she wiped her hands on her apron and walked out front.

Rose followed her out and gasped.

Sitting on the countertop was a black vase of bright white lilies with pale blue centers.

“I think Greg sent you some flowers.” Celeste smiled as Rose moved forward to inspect the flowers. 

“Oh wow, blue heart Lilly’s.” She leaned forward to smell them and pulled out the little card nestled between the petals. “Weird though, he usually sends me roses… he’s clever like that.” She joked, looking over her shoulder at Celeste and Sky who only giggled before looking down at the card and her eyebrows shot up before she turned to her sister with a devious grin.

“These are for you.” She held out the little card and Sky grinned along with the teacher.

“What?” It was Celeste’s turn to look surprised, face turning colors again. She walked up to the counter and took the little paper card.

_Celeste,_

_Have a good week._

_~Jaune_

“Well…,” Rose was grinning at her. “...not the most romantic sentiment, but at least she knows how to let someone know she likes them.” Rose laughed.

Celeste reached out and ran her fingers over the delicate petals. They were beautiful and she couldn’t stop the smile that was pulling at her lips even if she wanted to. 

~ ~ ~

Jaune sat at her desk, hunched over her laptop, clicking through a long list of emails, determining at a glance which were garbage and which were actually important. 

So far her inbox was filled with garbage.

Clients constantly asking for updates on their cases.

Once a week? Fine, doable.

Every. Damn. Day?

No. 

Anyone she talked to Friday went into the garbage today. This usually freed up her inbox for actually important emails. 

Today however it seemed, would be a slow day. Once the garbage was gone there was nothing left of importance for her to look at. 

There were no updates on any of her cases and no clients to meet with for once. 

It seemed that she found herself in possession in one of her rare days where there was nothing pressing to do. 

Normally she would have been elated by the brief break, today however she was chomping at the bit for something to do.

She had ordered those flowers first thing this morning and afterward doubted whether or not she should have done it. She certainly didn’t want to come on too strong but she also wanted to make her interest clear. 

She glanced at her watch. Fifteen till twelve. They would have been delivered by now and she tapped her foot agitatedly.

For all the times for there to be no work to bury herself in, of course, it would be now when she needed it most.

She still needed to talk to her mother about the little stunt she had pulled Saturday, but she just could not get up enough energy for that fight right now and had been in far too good a mood when she had gotten back home after dinner. 

She supposed she could get a head start on some things she would need tomorrow.

Five minutes into writing up some papers for a meeting she had tomorrow her phone buzzed and she reached for it distractedly, only glancing at the screen before doing a quick double take. 

It was a text from Celeste.

Jaune would never admit that she felt nervous as she opened the message.

_“Do you like turkey sandwiches?”_

Jaune stared long and hard at the text, blinking.

~ ~ ~

When she pulled up in front of the bakery the sign was flipped to closed and no one was inside, but the door opened when she pulled on the handle, making the bells jingle.

Celeste’s head popped around the doorway to the kitchen and she smiled brightly at the sight of the lawyer, whose stomach flipped at the beautiful smile aimed at her. 

“Hey…” She walked around the corner, wearing a dark blue apron covered in splotches of flour and a variety of batters, her hair pulled up into a bun and Jaune couldn’t help but admire her beauty. 

Saturday night she had been undeniably breathtaking, but there was something genuine in the way she looked now that was equally attractive to the lawyer. 

“Hey…” She cleared her throat when she realized she had been staring and the knowing little smile that had moved onto Celetes face said she had indeed noticed.

“Come on back.” She nodded and went back into the kitchen with Jaune following.

The bakeries kitchen smelled of various baking goods and it made the lawyer’s stomach growl. 

Loudly enough that she heard Celeste’s stifled giggle and flushed. 

“Have a seat.” She gestured to the stools placed around the butcher block table in the corner where only twenty minutes ago her nephew had been coloring before Rose had swept him upstairs with her, giving her a knowing look, as had Sky when she sent her on her lunch break. 

“Are you certain you weren’t busy?” she asked, going over to another counter and picked up two plates. 

“My office was positively dead for once.” Jaune assured her as she slid off the black sports coat and sat, laying it in her lap, leaving her in the white button down. “Also, my PA has instructions to call me if anything that really requires my attention comes up.”

Which was true, but Jaune didn’t mention that she had turned her phone off the moment she’d gotten in her car, having no intention of taking any calls or texts.

A plate was set in front of her and the turkey sandwich on a croissant looked picture perfect and her hunger returned full force. 

“Thank you.” She smiled appreciatively at Celeste as she sat down across from her with her own plate. 

“I should be thanking you. The flowers are beautiful, you shouldn’t have.” She was giving the blond a warm look that immediately made her stomach twist.

Yes, the flowers had definitely been a good idea. 

“It was nothing.” She ran a hand through her short blonde locks. Something Celeste had quickly picked up on as being a nervous habit it seemed and her smile widened. For all Jaune’s serious stoicness, she was incredibly easy to fluster.

Something she found endlessly endearing.

“I appreciate it nonetheless, so thank you.” She was smiling at the blonde from beneath her lashes and Jaune felt like her tongue was too swollen to talk at the look.

“You’re welcome…” She managed before Celeste, mercifully, moved those bright cobalt eyes off of her, turning them to the food. She breathed a sigh of relief and picked up her own food.

She wasn’t sure if it was her infatuation with the baker or was this really the best sandwich she’d ever had? Just the fact that the croissant was still warm told her that the woman across from her had baked these.

They chatted quietly in the nearly otherwise silent kitchen, occasionally an oven timer went off and Celeste would hurry over to check on whatever was making all the wonderful aromas in the air.

"It seems you might be the one who's busy.” She commented.

“Oh, no.” Celeste assured her with a wave. “This is just, everyday.” She shrugged and sat back down, picking up her sandwich. 

She was nearly finished tearing through the food when she heard the small giggle and looked up to see Celeste looking at her with a little grin.

“What?” She blinked.

“You have mustard on your face,” she chuckled, pointing at the corner of her own mouth. “Let me get you a napkin.” She walked over to the counter and suddenly there was a commotion in the stairwell of crying and thundering steps. 

Suddenly Steven appeared, crying at the top of his lungs…

And completely naked and splattered with mud. 

The six year old tore through the kitchen as Rose hit the bottom of the staircase.

“Steven! You are getting a bath!” she yelled, chasing the boy and suddenly seeing her sister and the lawyer, flushed brightly. 

“I’m sorry, pretend we’re not here!” she yelled as she chased her son out into the store front, his screaming echoing through the building.

“I don’t want a bath!” 

“Well, that might be difficult…” Jaune mumbled, watching the spectacle with wide eyes.

Only a few seconds later the boy was back with his mother hot on his heels.

Celeste jumped in, trying to cut him off but at seeing her, he ducked under a table as he weaved around the kitchen equipment, still crying and screeching as he eluded his mother and aunt. 

After a full minute of this he turned sharply, running along her side of the kitchen. Just as he ran past the table Jaune whipped the blazer off her knees and snatched the boy up in it, cocooning him in her arms as he flailed and wailed.

“Thank you…” Rose huffed, trying to get her breath back as she walked up to them and wrangled the boy out of the suit jacket.

He continued to cry even as she took a tight hold on him and quickly sent Celeste an apologetic look before hurrying back upstairs with her tearful son. 

Jaune inspected the garment and frowned.

The once pristine white lining was now spotted with mud and dirt. As well as a yellow smudge of mustard on the outside, having been wiped off her face when the boy was thrashing around.

Unfortunately, Celeste also saw the state of the coat.

“I'm so sorry, Jaune. Please, let me have it cleaned.” She offered, stepping forward and looking almost pained. 

An expression that Jaune couldn’t stand on the woman's face.

“Don’t be sorry. I spilled coffee on the sleeve this morning and intended to have it dry cleaned regardless.” She tried to reassure the distraught looking baker but she continued to frown, hands clasped together at her waist. Reaching out she laid a gentle hand on the two clasped ones. “Really, it's fine, Celeste.” 

She still didn’t look happy but she nodded.

“If you’re sure…,” she trailed off.

“I am.” She nodded. 

When they finished eating she turned her phone back on to see several missed calls and a few emails. She needed to get back to the office.

Celeste walked her out to the front, her ruined suit jacket hanging in the crook of her arm, she laid it in the back seat of her car and closed the door, before rolling up her sleeves.

Might as well make her new look appear intentional. 

She turned back to see Celeste, biting her bottom lip and although the sight did something wholly inappropriate to her she knew the face wasn’t a good thing just by the look of her eyes. She was still fretting over the coat. 

“Are you busy this weekend?” she asked, stepping away from the car and closer to Celeste, who looked up at her with those seemingly bottomless pools of blue. 

With Celeste in flats and Jaune in her heels, their already noticeable height difference was blown to even greater disproportions.

“I’m not. Did you have something in mind?” 

“Not yet… but I was hoping to see you anyway,” she said and the smile that appeared on the bakers face, along with the tinge of a blush on her cheeks was enough to dispel any lingering doubts she might have had about Celeste’s own feelings toward her.

“Well, when you figure it out, I can be free anytime after 4pm on Saturday,” the flirtatious tone made Jaune grin even as it made her knees weak.

“I’ll text you.” She stepped off the curb to walk around to the drivers side door when the shop's front door opened, the bells jingling.

“Hold up one second, please.” Rose stepped out with a clean and clothed Steven in her arms. She walked over to the car and set him down on the edge of the curb at the lawyers feet. “Steven has something to say.” She looked up at the blonde, with her own apologetic face.

Even standing off the curb, in her heels she towered over the boy who was frowning mightily with his head ducked. 

He looked back at his mother, who gave him a very stern look, hands on her hips. He turned back around to look up at the blonde with his downcast face.

“I’m sorry I got your shirt dirty, miss tall lady.” He mumbled, looking up at her from beneath his mop of curly black hair, truly contrite. 

It was all the sisters could do not to crack up at that. Rose hit her lip and Celeste slapped a hand over her mouth. 

Jaune kept a remarkably straight face though.

“It’s alright, no harm done this time.” She patted the boys head before lifting a hand in goodbye to the two women and climbing in her car and driving off.

Once she was gone Rose shooed her son inside and turned around to face her sister.

“I. Am. So. Sorry!” She grimaced. “Would she let me pay to have it cleaned?” the teacher asked. “I feel awful. We ruined your lunch date...and part of her suit, her very expensive looking suit!” she fretted. 

“It’s alright, Rose. She wasn’t upset...,well, by the look on her face, she wasn’t happy, but she wasn’t upset and I offered but she wouldn’t let me have it cleaned either. You didn’t ruin anything either. Actually, we're going out again sometime this weekend.” She smiled as they moved back inside the bakery.

“I’m glad” She let out a sigh of relief that she hadn’t ended her sister’s relationship before it ever really got started. “I guess she really likes you.” Rose smirked at the far off look on her sister’s face. 

“I really like her too.” She smiled, flipping the open sign on the front door.


	8. ch 8

Tuesday evening Blanche sat in her living room with Jaune, who had made another surprise visit on her way home from work.

She was quite glad for the company. Until recently her only child had been rather scarce, burying herself in her work and the office. 

“I hope you realize I am not happy with the stunt you pulled last weekend,” Jaune said out of the blue.

Blanche looked up from her glass of wine to look at her daughter who was giving her an agitated look, but really, when did Jaune not look agitated? 

She took a long sip from the glass before and setting it aside she turned her full attention to the frowning blonde. 

The way she was sitting, straight-backed in the wing chair across from herself, arms crossed and brow sitting heavy over her eyes, Blanch was immediately reminded of another blonde who once occupied that chair on a nightly basis, always looking just as serious.

She ignored the pang in her chest that often accompanied such thoughts and smiled at Jaune.

“How did you know?” There was no sense denying what Jaune already knew.

“She saw my pin and was reminded of yours.” 

“Ahh, I should have known. She was very sweet and complimented it.” She smiled, reaching up to touch the piece of jewelry pinned to her blouse. Jaune sighed.

“What exactly were you trying to accomplish?” she demanded, sharp amber eyes narrowed in clear anger 

“Oh, I was just curious, Jaune. I can’t remember the last time you were so head over heels for someone…” The blonde flushed. “...and so quickly. I had to see her for myself.” She held a hand up to her chest.

Then a thought occurred to Blanche.

“Was she upset?” she asked, carefully. She hadn’t intended for the younger woman to learn who she was and hadn’t taken into account that she may not be thrilled with essentially being, ‘scoped out’ as they say. 

“No, thankfully she wasn’t. She didn’t even seem to consider that she should be upset. I had lunch with her yesterday and we made plans to see each other again this weekend.” Jaune continued to frown and for all her bluster Blanche was well enough aware that she could have very much ruined her daughter’s tentative new relationship with her curiosity.

“I’m sorry, Jaune. I shouldn’t have gone,” she admitted. Jaune seemed surprised by the seemingly genuine apology.

“I appreciate that mother, though I’m hardly the one you should be apologizing to,” she grumbled.

“You’re right.” She nodded. “I’ll make my apologies to the young woman herself.”

“Wait, what?” Jaune sat up in the chair.

“I’m having a little outdoor party Sunday, some friends and acquaintances. Bring her, she might like to see where you grew up and I can make my apologies in person.”

“I realize we’ve only known each other about a month, but I’m not sure Celeste would be interested in one of your garden parties.” She hunched over, elbows on her knees as she regarded her mother.

“Do sit up, dear. Watching you makes my back hurt, and it couldn’t hurt to ask, as you said, you haven’t been seeing each other very long. You never know.” 

Jaune sighed heavily through her nose as she straightened up. 

“I’ll ask,” she relented with a grunt. 

“Wonderful” Her mother smiled, clapping her hands together. 

~ ~ ~

Once she got home she pulled out her phone and typed out a quick message as she slipped out of her shoes, she walked into her bedroom.

_“Are you free to talk?”_

A few minutes later her phone began to ring.

Seeing the expected caller she hit the little green button and put it on speaker.

“Hi” She smiled to herself as she slid off her suit jacket.

“Well, hello yourself.” that lilting accent came through the phone with a hint of laughter and in the privacy of her bedroom, Jaune grinned stupidly at the sound. 

“About this weekend…,” she started.

“Hmm?”

“Please, feel free to say no, but my mother wanted me to invite you to a little party she’s throwing Sunday afternoon. She also wanted to apologize to you for showing up at the bakery last weekend.” Jaune rolled her eyes at the last part as she popped the buttons on her shirt open. 

“There’s nothing to apologize for, she didn’t do anything except buy candy and make small talk,” she said and Jaune could hear some quiet shuffling sounds.

“Yes, but she went to spy,” she sniffed, dropping the shirt into her hamper and pulled at the buckle of her belt. 

“I feel like it would be rude to turn down her invitation… what kind of party is it?”

She could hear the curiosity in Celeste’s voice.

“Her version of a garden party, outside, food, and the like.” She shrugged to herself, forgetting Celeste couldn’t see the gesture.

“It doesn’t sound like it interests you much.” the voice sounded knowing. Jaune hummed.

“She’s been doing them since I was a child and they were incredibly dull, being the only child around a bunch of adults with their heads shoved up their…,” she stopped, catching herself and suddenly Celeste’s laughter was wafting out of the phone and it made Jaune stop what she was doing just to enjoy the sound. 

“I see…,” she giggled. ‘Well, maybe they would be less dull if you weren’t all by yourself?” The suggestion was clear and a smile pulled at the lawyer’s lips. 

“Maybe.” 

“So, we’re going?” Celeste asked.

“If that’s what you’d like to do. I’ll let her know tomorrow.” 

They talked for two more hours. It was just so easy for them to fall into comfortable conversation. Eventually, Celeste took note of the time and had to get to bed. 

“Good night, Jaune.”

The soft way she bid the lawyer goodnight made something in her turn into a puddle of hot goo.

“Good night, Celeste.” she echoed back and the line went dead.

She sighed, flopping unceremoniously onto her bed.

Her mother was right. It had barely been a month, but she was absolutely infatuated with the Celestine Carrick.

She dragged a hand down her face, sighing.

She might be in trouble if it went on at this rate.

Yet she couldn't stop the smile pulling at her lips.

~ ~ ~ 

"Saturday is generally our busiest day, and we're closed on Sundays," Celeste explained as she walked around the kitchen with her newest hire. 

She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but Pearl White hadn't been it.

The woman was tall and rail-thin with short, upward swept hair and a prominent nose.

Celeste couldn't help but notice that she moved around with a light gracefulness, making little sound as she moved about.

"When I'm not around Sky can answer any questions you have, she's been here almost as long as I have." She gestured to her assistant at the tables, kneading balls of dough. She looked up and smiled.

It was impossible to see where she was looking, her eyes always hidden by the dark brown hair in front of her face. 

"She's going to show you how to make a few of our most popular recipes while I work the front today.

"Oh, perfect." She clapped her hands together and trotted over to the other baker.

Once they were engrossed with the logistics of measuring flours and sugar she walked out to the front. It was still fairly early on Saturday morning but the farmers market a few streets over had opened for the first time this year, so it was a little slower than usual. Letting her man the front while Sky taught Pearl the basics. True, they were her recipes, but it might be a little more relaxed if Sky taught her. Someone who wasn’t technically her boss. 

She checked out the one older woman who had been perusing the cases and when she left the store stood empty. 

She pulled out her phone to see a message from Jaune. She must have sent it while she was walking Pearl through the shop

_"I'll pick you up at 3pm tomorrow."_

She smiled and began typing out a response.

_"Sounds good. What does one wear to a garden party?"_

Since it was Saturday and Jaune was off work, a response came only about 30 seconds later.

_"In my experience, something excessive and pretentious,"_ was the reply. Celeste chuckled.

_"I'm not sure I have anything that meets that criteria."_

She leaned over the counter resting her chin in her palm, waiting for a reply 

After a few seconds the dots that indicated the blonde was typing appeared.

_"Dressy casual will have to suffice then."_

Celeste rolled her eyes and moved to start her own message, but the bubbles quickly reappeared.

_"I'm sure you'll look nice in anything though."_

_"Flatterer"_ she quickly tapped back.

_“It’s hardly flattery if it’s true.”_ Came the quick response.

"Are you talking to Jaune?" 

Celeste jumped, looking up. Her sister had silently walked out of the back and around to the front counter without her noticing. 

"What makes you say that?" She stood up, sliding the phone into her apron pocket.

"Because you're staring at your phone with the dopiest lovestruck smile I've ever seen." She grinned wickedly and Celeste turned bright red. 

“We were just confirming our plans for tomorrow afternoon,” she mumbled, looking anywhere but her sister. 

She was so busy trying not to look at the teacher she didn’t notice her creeping closer till a lightning quick hand was lifting her phone out of her apron pocket.

“Rose!” She scowled as the younger woman ducked around the counter, phone held out in front of her, looking at the last couple of texts.

“Looks to me like you’re flirting,” she laughed as Celeste snatched at the device. Rose let her have it.

She knew when and how far she could push it before even her rather patient sister reached the end of that patience. 

“Never imagined I’d see you go all ga-ga over someone…I mean, your last few relationships weren’t like this.” Rose looked at her curiously, leaning against the counter as she slid the phone back into her pocket. “What is so special about Jaune Roche?” she finally asked.

Celest’s lips pressed into a thin line as she thought about the question. She has been wondering that herself.

“I don’t know.” she finally admitted. “It’s… just so easy with her. We can talk for hours without hardly noticing, I can even just be comfortably silent in her company.” She turned to her sister. “RIght now, I just know that I like being with her.” 

“Those are as good a reasons as any.” She smiled almost knowingly. 

And she did know. She knew her sister was falling head over heels for the tall blonde. Quickly, too. 

“How’s Pearl doing?” She changed the subject. 

“Fine, Sky is teaching her a few things right now.” 

"What do you think?" 

"I'm not sure what I expected. She's different," she answered honestly and Rose chuckled, nodding. 

"Yeah… ya know, now that I'm thinking about it. That could have gone really sideways for me." 

"What could have?" Celeste blinked, confused.

"Taking your phone. Based on that look you had, you two could have been sexting for all I know," She called out the last part as she ran back into the kitchen laughing hysterically.

"Rose!" The baker's face couldn't have possibly been redder. 

~ ~ ~

Celeste was waiting inside at the counter when Jaune pulled up in the street outside Sunday afternoon. She carefully brushed her hair over her shoulder and walked quickly out to the car.

Jaune would never admit to the immediate jump in her heart rate at the sight of the baker in the knee length, white sundress speckled with blue flowers and the strappy, roman style, white sandals. 

"Hey" she greeted the blonde with a smile as she climbed into the car. The subtle smell of leather and coffee, just as prevalent as it had been last time.

"Hey, you look very nice."

"Well I'd hate to disappoint after you were so sure the other day." She grinned and Jaune smirked back, amber eyes narrowed, the amusement was clear.

"I never had any doubt," was the quick retort.

"I see that you can be a little more casual.” She observed, settling into the seat and looking over the blonde. “I like it.” 

Dark gray chinos and a jacket the same shade over a black v-neck shirt. It was simple but Celeste suspected the lawyer could wear sweat pants and still look more professional than most people she knew. 

“My mother dresses extravagantly enough for the both of us at these things,”she assured with a roll of her eyes behind her sunglasses as she pulled out onto the road. “But thank you…” 

They didn’t talk much on the drive, but Celeste didn’t mind. It was a comfortable silence, it was one of things she very much liked about Jaune. She didn’t feel the need to fill every quiet moment. 

She watched the city slowly thin out to rolling fields, some with grazing horses and cows. 

It was probably twenty minutes out of the city when Jaune finally turned off the main road into a drive with a large iron gate with a large ‘R’ cut out in the middle. What really caught her attention was the absolutely massive house a couple hundred yards drive down the way. 

“I’m assuming we're here…” She mumbled, looking over at Jaune as she reached up to hit a small device clipped to her sun visor and the gates opened. 

“It’s obscenely large… I know…” she grumbled.

“Just based on her car and the way she was dressed I figured your mother had money but…” She peered up at the house with wide eyes, not noticing the sudden tenseness in her date.

“My father was a successful lawyer in his own right, but he came from old money. My mother is a retired cabaret dancer,” she was stiffly informed, as they stopped in the driveway full of cars, all of foriegn make.

Jaune made no move to get out of the car though and Celeste watched her with a curious stare.

“This… my family’s financial status… isn’t a problem for you, is it?” she finally asked after a few tense seconds. 

“A problem?” she questioned, eyebrows shooting up and Jaune no doubt read her confusion as offense. 

“I don’t mean that to say anything about you, Celeste…,” she quickly said, her grip on the leather steering wheel tightening till it squeaked. “It’s just… it has caused issues in my relationships before…” She didn’t elaborate and looked so tense, as though she were made of stone. Her voice held a tone that Celeste couldn’t read.

Slowly, as though she might frighten, she reached out and laid a hand over the white knuckled stranglehold, Jaune had on the steering wheel. 

“I don’t care about money. I like you, Jaune,” she assured gently. 

Before Jaune could say anything there was a tapping on her window, making both women jump. 

A woman in a maid outfit and her hair in a pair of buns stood outside the passenger side door, looking contrite. Jaune rolled down the window with a frown.

“Yes...?” she ground out. 

“I’m sorry, Jaune,” the woman said quietly. “She sent me out to see what was taking you so long and to hurry you along.” The woman looked very apologetic and Jaune sighed.

“It’s alright, Penny. We’ll be in shortly.” 

The woman nodded and hurried back inside the house as Jaune rolled up the window.

“My mother’s maid… she’s impatient today.” Jaune grumbled, running a hand through her hair. 

“Then we shouldn’t keep her waiting.” She smiled and was quite pleased with herself when the corners of the lawyer's lips began to draw upwards.

“Right…” They finally climbed out and started for the door. 

“I imagine she’s had Penny on lookout for us. She did the same thing when I was a teenager because my father wouldn’t let her stand in the window,” she mumbled and Celeste smiled. 

They walked in and Celeste couldn’t help but admire the lavish house. It was, ss Jaune put it. ‘obscenely large’ but it was very beautiful on the inside.

The house seemed to be done in a black and white theme with natural wood floors.

“The backyard is this way.” Jaune pointed down a hall and she followed her. They ended up in what looked to Celeste like a solarium, the ceiling and an entire wall made of glass, looked out into the garden and backyard where she could see about fifty people milling about with drinks and food. 

But something else happened to catch her eye. A wooden shelf against the wall filled with framed phones and trophies. She stopped to look and the first photo her eyes landed on was a very familiar looking blonde.

“Is this you?” She turned to ask, making Jaune stop to look at whatever she was looking at. 

“Oh god…” She frowned, seeing what had caught Celeste’s attention. “No…” 

“Of course it is!” A new voice sounded and both women looked up as Blanche walked in through the glass doors that lead out into the garden. Her bright red painted lips pulled into a smile as she glided across the room to them. 

Jaune was right. The older woman was dressed up enough for two. Her white, sparkling dress was similar to Celeste’s in style but that was where the similarities ended. The Roche matriarch wore tall black heels with a deadly looking point to them that clicked loudly on the wooden floors. The black fur shawl she was wearing draped elegantly off her shoulders, perfectly framing the diamond necklace laying at her throat. 

Jaune rolled her eyes. 

“Mother…,” she greeted, doing her best to make her annoyance at having Penny sent out to the car clear. 

“Hello, dear.” It was completely ignored and she turned to Celeste with a smile. Jaune huffed. 

“Celeste, this is my mother, Blanche Roche. Mother, Celeste Carrick.” 

“We didn’t really properly meet before and I’d like to start by apologizing for that. I was just so curious about what kind of woman had Sunshine all in a twist.” She smiled brightly, eyes closing.

“Sunshine?”

Jaune flushed, scowling at her mother. Celeste couldn’t help but grin and when amber met blue the lawyer turned an even darker shade of red. 

“I see you found her trophy shelf.” Blanche directed the baker's attention back to the wooden shelves, much to Jaune’s ire.

She picked up the photo Celeste had been looking at. 

A teen Jaune, about 15 or so, holding a plaque and smiling at the camera, braces on full display.

“She had a horrible overbite.” her mother informed Celeste. The blonde only frowned, pursing her lips. 

“Are these all yours?” She looked at her frowning date. 

“They are,” she sighed. 

“Jaune was in quite a few groups in school. Speech and debate, mock trial… oh and I believe chess club for a time.” Her mother helpfully listed. 

She glanced at the awards and ribbons, naming Jaune for a variety of the activities Blanche had listed. 

“Oh, you were…,” she paused, looking for the right word.

“A nerd…” Jaune helpfully supplied.

“No…” Celeste turned to her, hesitating as she thought. “Academically inclined...,” she finally said with a certain little grin. 

Jaune smiled at her ruefully. Not believing her for a second.

“Why don’t we head out to the party now?” Blanche suggested, holding a hand out toward the garden. Just like that, the blonde was frowning again. More so at her mother’s interjection in their moment then the looming social interactions, though she wasn’t thrilled about that either. 

“If you’re ready.” She turned to Celeste who smiled. 

~ ~ ~

An hour and a half later and Jaune had had enough.

Somehow the parties hadn’t really changed since she was a child. They were still dull affairs with a bunch of clueless, wealthy aristocrats who for the most part didn’t have a clue. 

The only difference now was she could drink and put in only the barest amount of effort to avoid offending anyone. 

Unfortunately though, since she had driven and had Celeste with her, drinking wasn’t an option. So instead she had to grin and bear it, stone cold sober. 

Celeste didn’t seem to be having a much better time as she interacted with some of her mother’s friends and acquaintances. Many of whom were older and the way they looked down on Celeste was apparent. To be fair they looked down on everyone though, but it still made Jaune’s blood boil. 

Her mother would appear every so often and introduce the baker to some old family friend or another as her girlfriend and they certainly didn’t look impressed. 

“How do you do this?” Celeste mumbled to her when they found themselves alone, partially hidden by a large rose bush in the corner of the party.

“Usually I drink.” She shrugged. “As a child, I would hide.”

“Maybe we should hide…,” she laughed. 

That gave the lawyer a brilliant idea.

“I know the perfect place.” She smiled and held out her hand. “Trust me?” 

Celeste blinked, surprised, and looked at the offered hand, taking it almost without thinking.

“Of course.” 

They quietly left the garden, heading down the hill, away from the house toward the woods on the edge of the property.

“Where are we going?” Celeste couldn’t help but ask at seeing the smile on Jaune's face.

“Patience” Was all Jaune said, looking over her shoulder. Partially hidden by the grass was a worn dirt path, weaving between the trees, they followed it, weaving through the thick foliage until even the giant house was obscured by leaves and tree trunks. The chirping of birds and the low hum of various insects filled the air around them. 

After a few minutes of walking a new sound began to tease at the edges of her hearing. 

“What is that?” she mumbled more to herself but the way Jaune smiled told her that she also heard it and knew exactly what it was.

Finally she realized what she was hearing just as they rounded a bend in the path.

“A river?” Celeste gasped, looking at the gently rolling water that cut through the woods and traveled well out of sight.

The water flowed at a gentle pace, creating a small, relaxing sound.

Celeste wasted no time moving toward the banks with Jaune right behind her.

“It’s so beautiful,” the baker mumbled over the gurgling of the water as it flowed past them.

Jaune hummed in agreement with a soft smile, watching Celeste. 

“I often came here after school or when I grew tired of those parties.. .or when my mother was just being too much, as you saw” She glanced at Celeste and smirked. 

“Your mother is lovely.” Celeste playfully slapped her arm. 

“In small doses,” she grunted and Celeste laughed. They carefully sat themselves on a large rock at the water’s edge. 

The sun filtered through the trees, reflecting stray shafts of light off the water’s surface, creating a brilliant sparkling effect that bounced across their skin from where they sat in comfortable silence. Celeste finally spoke up after several long moments of peaceful quiet.

It was so beautiful and peaceful and she found her affection for the blonde at her side bubbling up, but she was still incredibly curious about something.

“Can I ask something I suspect is personal?” she asked after a long quiet moment. Jaune hummed an affirmative. 

“You said before that your family's wealth caused problems in previous relationships…?” 

Jaune sighed, leaning back on her hands and glanced at Celeste out of the corner of her eye. 

“When I was in college I briefly dated a woman who was… very uncomfortable with my family's wealth when she found out, and accused me of leading her on. That I was…’slumming it’ for fun,” she grimaced at the memory. “We broke up and she spread it around campus, it was actually a secondary but no less valid reason for why I transferred out in my last semester. It caused… problems,” she grumbled. 

“That’s awful!” Celeste leaned forward. “I’m sorry that happened, Jaune.” 

“It's hardly your fault,” Jaune grunted. “Disclosing my family’s wealth always feels so precarious ever since…,” she admitted, turning back to look at the quiet bubbling water.

“Well…, you don’t need to worry about me. As I said...,” She scooted closer to the blonde, their knees now brushing against each other. Jaune looked at her curiously. “ I just really like you…” It was a quiet statement that sent a tingle up Jaune’s spine and her heart into a double beat.

She swallowed thickly and leaned over, Celeste meeting her half way, their lips meeting in a soft kiss.

Fingers slowly slid through soft, blonde locks, making Jaune hum against her lips and suddenly her hands were resting gently on the baker’s hips.

Finally they seperated just enough that amber and blue met wordlessly.

Neither one was really sure who moved back in first, but it didn’t matter as they were locked together again, this one, rougher, more frantic then the first, interrupted only when Celeste gasped, as she was suddenly nearly dragged onto the blonde’s lap. 

Jaune looked up at her in silent question, breathing heavily through her mouth and with her now mussed hair, Celeste couldn’t help herself from dipping back down, capturing the lawyers lips again and slanting her head to deepen the kiss, tugging at short blonde hair. The fingers digging into her hips slid upward to her back and to tangle in the hair at her neck, pulling her closer.

She moaned when a tongue slid across her bottom lip, startling them both apart, gasping.

They stared at each other for several long seconds, catching their breath.

“I really like you too…” Jaune finally breathed against her lips. 

Celeste blinked before bursting into giggles while the lawyer just grinned. 

~ ~ ~

“Do you think she noticed we were gone?” Celeste asked as they walked back toward the house, her arm threaded around Jaune’s. 

“I guarantee it,” she said. “She always did when I was a kid. She could just never find me.” She grinned. 

The party seemed to have thinned while they were gone. 

“There you two are!” They both looked to Blanche as she approached them. “Where have you been?” She looked between the two of them.

“I was just showing Celeste the grounds, but I really need to be getting her home now.” Jaune informed her mother.

“Oh, so soon?” Blanche pouted, turning the silver haired woman.

“My days start at three a.m. I'm afraid.” Celeste explained.

“My, that is much too early my dear. I understand, it was lovely of you to come.” She smiled.

“Thank you for having me.” She nodded graciously to her host.

“Call me when you get home, Sunshine.” Were the older woman’s parting words as she and Jaune rolled her eyes but nodded.

“Of course mother.” 

Celeste chuckled quietly at her side, making the blonde grin at her.

The drive home went by much too quickly for both of them and before they knew it Jaune was parked in front of the bakery and Celeste found herself wishing she didn’t need to get up so early. She wasn’t ready to part ways yet. 

Jaune seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

“I wish you didn’t have to go yet,” she admitted. “Rather than my mother’s house I would have liked to take you to my place…” she said unthinkingly.

“Oh?” Celeste grinned as the suggestive statement. Jaune caught on quickly and turned beet red.

“That’s not what I meant!” she quickly defended. 

Celeste laughed at the flustered face she was making. 

“Maybe next time you’ll show me your place...” Celeste said, but it hung in the air like a question.

“Maybe next weekend you could come over for dinner… though, as a fair warning, my cooking is only just passable,” she admitted, looking sheepish. Celeste grinned at the adorable face.

“Perhaps I could come over and we could cook together?” she suggested. 

“I’d like that.” Jaune smiled. 

“I’ll call you,” Celeste promised, leaning over the console. Jaune met her halfway in a chaste kiss before she climbed out of the car and waved as the goldenrod Mercedes drove off.

Maybe her sister was right.

Maybe she really was lovestruck.

She’d never felt so strongly for someone, nor so quickly. They just fit together so effortlessly, it was almost scary.

She sighed as she walked into the shop. She had only just driven away but already she found herself longing for Jaune’s company. How silly. 

“Was that a good sigh or a bad sigh?” a sudden voice made her jump with a shriek.

Rose was sitting in the kitchen, a butterscotch bite held between two fingers. 

“Sorry” her sister frowned. “Didn’t mean to scare you. How was your afternoon?” she asked before popping the food in her mouth.

“The party was… dull to be polite,” she mumbled, sitting at the butcher block table with her sister. “Time with Jaune though, was wonderful.” she smiled wistfully. 

“Oh yea? Why, did you make out with your girlfriend at her mother’s house?” she laughed, teasing, but Celeste only pursed her lips. “Oh my god, did you?!”

“It wasn’t at the house...,” she trailed off, decidedly not looking at Rose.

“Oh my god!” Rose slapped her hands to her face. “Tell me everything!” She grinned, leaning forward.

Celeste just smiled, exasperated, but she retold the tale of her afternoon in the woods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still on the fence if this is gonna go full on frontal or not.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW ahead

“Did Celeste have a good time Sunday?” her mother asked her out of the blue while they ate dinner on Wednesday night. 

Jaune looked up, still chewing the last of the chicken in her mouth. Taking the time to decide what she was going to say.

"She thought everything was lovely," she finally said, wiping at her mouth with the white cloth napkin before pushing her empty plate away from her.

It was true. The house, garden, and the woods she had all found beautiful. The party had been dull, but there was no reason to say as much to her mother.

"I'd like to have her over again soon, I didn't get too talk to her as much as I would have liked," she hummed. "She was very sweet."

A blonde brow hiked upward at that. She was honestly surprised by that. Her mother and the baker couldn’t have been more different.

Celeste was quiet, low key, thoughtful.

Her mother was loud, not so much in volume as attitude and presence, she could fill a room without even saying a word. Usually her outfit was loud enough to cause a dull roar in any given room.

While she wouldn’t go so far as to call the older woman thoughtless, she did usually have herself in the forefront of her mind before she thought of others. 

Then again her mother had surprised her before.

Not always in a good way, but surprised her nonetheless. 

“I’ll have to talk to her about it, we have dinner plans this Saturday actually.” She said, picking up the wineglass on the table. 

“Oh, anywhere exciting?” She blinked those dark black mascaraed eye lashes at her, leaning forward. 

“We're going to cook at my place.” She gave a little shrug. “I need to call her so I can go out and buy whatever we’re going to need after work tomorrow; she’s the expert in this area after all.”

‘Oh, that sounds fun, dear. Your father and I used to cook together when we first got married.”

Amber eyes flashed up at that, but her mother was no longer looking at her but at some point in the room over her shoulder, a small smile pulled at her brightly painted lips. 

“Mother…?” she called, drawing those coal black eyes back to her, blinking as though coming out of a trance. 

“Ah, I think I've had too much wine tonight, I’m not feeling very well, I think I’m going to go lay down, dear.” She stood and walked out of the dining room.

Jaune glanced at the half full glass of wine sitting on the table and frowned before standing up and nodding to Penny as she buttoned her blazer and left.

She continued to frown to herself the entire way home, thinking about the interaction. She dropped her keys in the bowl by the door as she walked in. 

She couldn’t remember the last time her father had been mentioned by her mother. It was a topic that seemed to be avoided at all costs, the subject quickly changed when someone began to allude to him. 

It had been seven years since he’d died and Jaune couldn’t even begin to guess at what her mother was thinking.

Shaking her head she pulled out her phone and dialed a now familiar number.

It rang twice before it was answered, by a sweet lilting voice.

 _“Hey, you.”_

She smiled at the sound. 

~ ~ ~ ~

Celeste stared at herself in the mirror, fixing her hair, as though she hadn’t taken most of the day preparing for tonight.

Pearl had been working in the shop every afternoon after school ended and had quickly picked up on the way they did things so she had decided to let her and Sky man the shop themselves the majority of the day while she took care of herself and some errands she hadn’t had time for over the last week. 

Things had seemed to run perfectly while she was gone and she was more than a little relieved by that. She didn’t have anything to worry about for the rest of the day.

She smiled to herself once she was happy with her appearance in the knee length, cobalt dress. 

She turned off the lights and locked the door behind her as she walked down the steps, black flats nearly silent on the stairs.

The door to the apartment was sitting open and noise from the tv filtered out into the hall. 

While the second and third floor were fully functional, independant apartments, the four of them usually treated the entire building as though it were one large house they all shared.

She peeked in to find Greg and Steven sitting on the couch in front of the tv, while Rose sat at the table, looking at some papers.

Greg noticed her first.

“Hey, Celeste, going out?” he asked, making Rose and Steven lookup.

“I’m going to Jaune’s for dinner tonight.” She nodded. 

“Oh yeah. You two are like, cooking together, right?” Rose turned to her, leaning back in her chair.

“We are.” 

“Well, have fun.” Greg smiled and Steven waved, but the tv had already recaptured his attention.

“Thank you, I will. Don’t wait up.” She smiled as she walked down the stairs.

“Wait, what does THAT mean?” Rose jumped up and ran to the door, looking at her sister’s retreating back as she walked down the stairs.

“It means don’t wait up,” she laughed, hearing her sister’s steps on the stairs behind her.

“Are you planning on shagging the lawyer?” Rose asked as they walked through the shop.

“I’m not planning on anything, Rose.” She rolled her eyes.

True, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t hoping.

The look on Rose’s face said she didn't believe her for one second.

“Let me see your underwear.” She frowned.

“I’m not showing you my underwear, go upstairs!” She flung a hand at the younger woman when she moved in closer and quickly walked out of the shop.

“Don’t deny it!” Rose yelled from the store’s front door as Celeste hurried to her car. “I know you’re wearing your sexy underwear!” 

She rolled her eyes at her sister as she climbed into her car and pulled up the address Jaune had sent her on her GPS. 

It was only five minutes away, though not in the direction she had assumed. When they went to the BeachFront Jaune had said it was on her way but according to this it was actually closer to the beach then the shop.

She hummed to herself as she started the car and followed the directions.

She didn’t even need the GPS the whole way. Half a block away and she could see a familiar goldenrod car in one driveway. 

She parked and climbed out, looking up at the house. From the outside at least it seemed completely normal. A one-story, contemporary style house with large windows and its walls made of stone and the roof a dark gray.

She chuckled to herself. 

Honestly it seemed like the exact place someone like Jaune would live.

The front door opened and her smile widened at the sight of the very object of her thoughts, standing in the doorway in dark blue jeans and a black button down shirt.

“You get more casual every time I see you.” 

“Well, it is my house.” Jaune grinned as Celeste stepped up on the front porch.

“True” She wrapped her arms around the blonde's neck and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips while long arms wrapped around her waist. 

“Maybe someday you’ll actually look relaxed.” she teased, making the blonde roll her eyes.

“Maybe… for now, why don’t we go inside.” She held out a hand to the door, Celeste stepped inside.

It was nice, though a little austere in furnishings. The walls were cream-colored and the floor was a pine colored wood. A large tv took up one wall with a large dark yellow colored sectional in front of it 

A few framed photos hung on the wall but otherwise were bare.

“It’s very nice.” She looked at Jaune over her shoulder, who had been watching her silently as she inspected the living room. “Though, not where I thought it’d be unless you moved in the last month…”

“What do you mean?” The confusion was apparent and Celeste realized that Jaune must have forgotten about her little fib by now.

“When we went to the BeachFront you offered to pick me up because it was on the way…” She watched realization flash across her face, followed by a sheepish guilt.

“Ah, yes. Well, it wasn’t really out of my way,” she mumbled, running a hand through her hair. 

Celeste stepped forward till they were toe to toe.

“It's the opposite direction…” She smirked and Jaune flushed pink.

“I wanted to pick you up,” she finally admitted and Celeste laughed.

“You should have just said so.” She pressed another quick kiss to the blonde’s cheek. “Show me around?” she asked as if Jaune would deny her anything.

She showed Celeste her office and bedroom before moving to the kitchen, it was large with all stainless steel appliances and Celeste wished her own kitchen was like this. The shop's kitchen was fine, but set up specifically for her business and not for everyday life and cooking. Her apartment's kitchen was cramped and small. 

“I love your kitchen,” She said, inspecting the counter space and island with a sink. Jaune chuckled at the dreamy look on her face and never before had she been so jealous of a kitchen.

“It does what I need it to.” She shrugged. “Except have a place to keep my wine, so that’s down in the basement with my gym.”

“You have a gym in the basement?” She turned around. 

“It's part gym, part wine cellar, but yes.” She crooked her head, indicating for her to follow as she opened a side door Celeste had assumed was a broom closet but actually housed a staircase.

She followed her down into a large room full of exercise equipment and one wall of diamond-shaped wooden racks holding bottles of wine.

“You never said you worked out.” Celeste looked at all the weights, a treadmill and some other machines.

“Most days after work, it depends on the day I had.” She crossed her arms and shrugged.

“I’ll be honest, you don’t seem the type,” she admitted.

“Ah, well I didn’t use to be, but after a while, it’s actually enjoyable. I started after my father died.” She walked over to the wine collection and started looking over the bottles. 

“Oh, he had a heart attack, didn’t he?” she asked carefully.

“Yeah. He never exercised and had a terrible diet. He’d have meat for dessert,” she scoffed, pulling a bottle out of one of the cubby’s and inspected the label. “I took a more active interest in taking care of myself after he died, it’s a bonus that I've grown to enjoy it.” She held the bottle up to Celeste. “This okay?” 

“I’m not the most knowledgeable when it comes to wine, I’ll just trust your impeccable judgment.” she smiled and Jaune smirked as they headed back upstairs where she set it on the island.

“I’m ready for my cooking lesson then I think.” 

Celeste laughed.

~ ~ ~

“Now just light it on fire,” Celeste instructed, standing a few inches away as Jaune held a pan of sizzling food.

“I’m glad I have homeowners insurance…” she mumbled, dropping the end of the lighter to the liquid in the pan, making it burst into large red flames. She jerked, holding it an arm's length away from her.

“Don’t be afraid of it.” A hand wrapped around hers holding the handle of the pan. “Just set it down and when the alcohol burns off it’ll go out,” Celeste explained, guiding her hand back to the gas stovetop. 

“This is a little more advanced than I’m used to,” Jaune admitted.

“It’s all just practice,” Celeste assured as they watched the flames dwindle until they went out completely. “And now it’s done.” She smiled. 

Unlike when she had taught her sister to cook, who had learned nearly against her will and with lots of complaining, Jaune seemed genuinely interested in her lesson, picking it up with gusto.

She said as much as the blonde plated their dinner. She shrugged.

“I’ve always liked learning things. As you saw at my mother’s.” 

“Being a nerd?”

“I thought I was ‘academically inclined’ hmm?” she smirked, but Celeste only returned the look.

“Oh, you are, but you’re also a nerd. Don’t worry though, you’re a cute nerd,” she assured. 

Jaune scoffed but the corners of her lips were pulling upward. 

The food was actually good and Jaune was honestly impressed with herself, even if she had been led step by step as they’d prepped everything together. Honestly, she was more impressed with Celeste's patience. Jaune was well aware that she wasn't the most patient person and easily frustrated but whenever something began to aggravate her Celeste would just place a calming hand on her arm or back and direct or calm her before getting them back on track.

Dinner seemed to fly by as they sat and talked and eventually the food was gone and they'd been talking for half an hour without noticing.

"I'll clean this up.” She stood and grabbed both plates.

"Oh, no, let me help you, Jaune." 

It was easier to let her than to argue that she was a guest. 

"I wish I had this kitchen." Celeste bemoaned to herself as she wiped off the counter. Jaune chuckled.

"The kitchen in the bakery isn't up to your standards?" She cocked her head as she scrubbed the pan.

"For my business, it's set up just as it needs to be, it would be too much work to use it for everyday cooking in the evening after I've closed the shop, what with the kind of cleaning that has to go into it." she sighed.

When the dishes were clean Jaune turned off the kitchen lights and they moved into the living room, sitting next to each other on the couch. 

"I’m surprised you still have a shop…" Jaune laughed after Celeste finished telling her how Rose had used the shop's kitchen when they had first moved in to try and cook and had caught the stove on fire.

"She’s only allowed to cook in her apartment now," she giggled. 

“She seems… interesting…” Jaune chuckled.

“My sister always means well… she just has a funny way of going about it.” she agreed, leaning back against the couch, one arm draped across the back. She paused, biting her bottom lip. “Thank you for having me over tonight…,” she started, Jaune looking at her curiously. “I can’t remember the last time I had as good a time as when I’m with you,” she admitted, a hint of pink dusted her cheeks.

Jaune reached out and took hold of the hand sitting on the back of the couch, holding it in her own.

“I feel the same…” she assured, running her thumb over the back of her hand. 

“I’m glad…” she mumbled, leaning in close and Jaune didn’t hesitate to meet her halfway in a soft kiss that quickly became two, then three, growing in length and intensity.

When it finally broke they pulled back just enough to lock eyes, hot breath ghosting over each other's lips. 

Suddenly the baker moved to straddle across her lap, dress sliding up to her waist, leaving the tops of her thighs bare and her hands automatically took hold of her hips. Gentle hands rested on her shoulders. Those deep blue eyes stared down at her with a little smile as they slid upward, warm fingers traced along the taught muscles of her neck to her jaw before sliding back down to rest on her shoulders. 

She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the shell of her ear. 

“Is this alright?” she breathed, making Jaune shiver. 

“Yes,” she managed despite the fact that her tongue felt heavy in her mouth and her heart was thumping in her ears. 

Celeste hummed pressing her lips to her ear again before moving downward, dragging her lips across every inch of skin on the side of the lawyer’s neck, stopping just long enough to suck at the throbbing pulse point there. Jaune made a gurgling noise, her skin was suddenly on fire and she dug her fingers into the pliable skin at Celeste’s waist, jerking her forward till the younger woman was flush against her. Celeste gasped, head jerking back from Jaune’s neck as she slid forward across the blonde’s jeans

Jaune smirked at the reaction, taking Celeste's distraction to pivot and move to stand, letting her partner flop onto her back across the couch cushions with a surprised yelp while she kept hold of her thighs.

“You okay?” she asked, leaning over her, the baker’s legs still wrapped around her waist.

Celeste nodded, brushing errant strands of silver hair out of her face as she looked up at Jaune. Her normally warm amber eyes were alight with fire and despite the heat now burning just beneath her skin, she shivered.

“Good…,” she mumbled, leaning down to capture her lips and jerked her hips, making Celeste gasp against her mouth.

She reached up and tangled her fingers in short blonde hair, anything to hold onto as Jaune rolled her denim-clad hips against her hot center and swiped her tongue across her bottom lip, a silent request for entry, which she granted, twisting her head to deepen the kiss, if possible.

Jaune mercifully stopped bucking her hips, letting conscious thought trickle back into Celeste’s head long enough to release her grip on the gold follicles. to pry at the buttons of the black button-down. 

Releasing her mouth, Jaune left a trail of open mouth kisses down her throat to her collar, dragging her tongue across the hollow there.

Celeste jerked, making her pull at the sides of the shirt in her hands, ripping it open and sending buttons flying across the room. They both jerked as they ‘pinged’ on the wooden floors.

“I’m so sorry…,” she started, just for the blonde to sit back and tug the shirt off her shoulders, flinging it somewhere over the back of the couch. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Jaune assured her. 

Celeste couldn’t help but admire her girlfriend’s torso. She was all hard muscle over bone, something she might not have ever believed had she not seen it and the well-used gym in the basement with her own eyes. Like her face and hands, the rest of her was all angles and sharp points. Even her hips, where they peeked out over the top of her jeans. She reached up and traced her fingers over the divots in her skin between where muscles met in her abdomen and ribs.

Her eyes trailed upward to the only soft curves of her body, held up in a black, lace, pushup bra.

Her hands trailed upward over taught skin till she reached the edge of the garment. Her thumbs swiped at the bottom swell of both breasts and unconsciously Jaune arched into the touch. 

"I get the feeling this isn't your usual style… was this just for me, Jaune?" She smiled coyly up at her and those already flushed cheeks darkened, giving her her answer.

She leaned up, wrapping her arms around the hard, sharp shoulders, and pressed her lips to the center of Jaune's chest, dragging her lips up her neck and over the curve of her jaw before claiming the lawyers waiting lips.

The hands at her waist slid down to cup her ass and she squeaked as she was lifted into the air as Jaune stood, holding Celeste, with her legs wrapped around her waist as she moved around the coffee table and down the hall to her bedroom.

"… that's a turn on…" she breathed.

Jaune grinned, nudging open her bedroom door with her hip. In two strides she was at the foot of the bed, sitting Celeste atop the white sheets and pulling at the zipper on the dress's back, letting it slide off her shoulders, she backed up as Celeste stood, letting the dress fall to the floor in a puddle of cobalt fabric. 

“And you talked about me?” Jaune laughed, eyeing her companion’s undergarments. Her mouth went dry all the same. 

Celeste grinned knowingly, her hands sliding down her own hips to the lacy band of the royal blue thong. Her chest was barely contained by the matching bra. 

She took a half-step forward, pressing soft curves against the lawyer’s hard angles, long fingers reached up to dig into the soft skin at her hips. 

“Ah, but I can admit I wore them for you.” She was looking up at her with hooded eyes and a small knowing smile as she reached around, and with a flick of her fingers undid the clasp on the blonde’s bra. 

Jaune sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth when fingers reached up to tweak her hard nipple between a thumb and finger. Celeste just smiled at the reaction, leaning forward to pepper kisses across the hot skin of the lawyer’s chest. It was easier to reach then the taller woman’s face and infinitely more fun with all the little noises she was making. 

“Celeste…,” she hissed when the other woman captured the other one in her mouth, flicking her tongue over the hard skin in her mouth. She just hummed in response to the cry of her name; the fingers at her hips dug in almost painfully. 

She leaned back to look up at the blonde’s face as she hooked her fingers through the loops on her jeans and pulled her flush against her. Hooded amber eyes watched her every move. 

“I like these…” She tugged at the dark jeans. “..but I think they need to go…,” she breathed, pressing a kiss against her mouth and nipping at her bottom lip. 

“Maybe if you ask nicely,” Jaune growled, rising up to full height and taking a step forward, forcing Celeste to retreat backward until her knees hit the back of the bed.

She curled her fingers into the waistband of the jeans and gave a sharp tug, pulling the blonde’s hips flush against hers. 

“Please, take off your fucking pants.” 

She couldn’t help but laugh while Celeste grinned up at her. She leaned down and pressed another kiss to her mouth.

“Was that so hard?” she rumbled against her lips

Celeste pulled back, moving up the bed. 

Jaune grinned at her while she scooted back against the pillows at the headboard. Once she was settled, she gave her a look of clear invitation. Jaune quickly pulled her belt through the loops, dropping it to the floor and popping the button on her jeans, kicking them off and dropping them before she followed, crawling up the bed till she was hovering over Celeste on her hands and knees

“Now who’s over-dressed?” she hummed, leaning back on her knees to reach up and take two handfuls of her partners soft, heaving bosom. Celeste arched into her touch as her thumbs circled the hard nipples visible through the blue fabric. 

Jaune hummed and shifted her hips to press her knee squarely against the thin, wet, strip of fabric that kept the baker decent, in only the barest sense of the words. 

Celeste gasped, back jerking off the bed and pressing her chest harder against Jaune’s hands as she pinched the hard nubs through the fabric, making her whimper. 

“Jaune…” It came out breathy and strained and if she hadn’t been turned on before, she would have been now. 

She leaned down and pressed a hard kiss to her open mouth. It was returned fervently, fingers tangling in her hair and yanking on them. 

She slipped a hand under her back and pinched open the bras clasp, breaking their kiss just long enough to pull it off her arms and tossing it across the room before pressing another quick kiss to Celeste’s lips before moving down the flushed skin of her neck to her chest.

“You’re beautiful…” She mumbled between kisses before gently taking a hard nipple between her teeth, making Celeste whine as she pinched and rolled the neglected one between her fingers. 

“God, Jaune,” she whimpered, which only prompted the lawyer to switch her mouth to the other breast. Her skin was on fire and while she wouldn’t stop the blonde for anything, she desperately needed more, now. 

“Please,” she finally moaned. 

Mercifully Jaune released her and wiped at the string of saliva that clung to her lip and Celeste’s now red nipple.

“Please what?” her voice was low and gravelly and it made Celeste shiver in anticipation as she moved her mouth to suck at the tight skin at the junction of her neck and shoulder.

“You know what,” she growled, dragging her nails down the blonde’s back as she sucked and nipped at her neck.

“You’ll have to be more specific than that.” 

She could feel the blonde’s smile against her skin as she bit and sucked at her neck. She was going crazy, her skin was on fire and she throbbed with every heartbeat. 

“Touch me…,” she breathed, and before she could be smart and ask where, she grabbed one of those long-fingered hands and pressed it squarely over the hot, wet, fabric between her thighs.

It seemed Celeste was at her limit and that was just as well, Jaune’s patience for their game was at its end.

Without a word, she slid her hand beneath the fabric and slid a single finger in the hot, wet folds, drawing a long groan from the woman beneath her. 

She pulled her hand back, making Celeste groan but it was only long enough to slip the stained garment down her thighs and dropping them over the side of the bed somewhere before slipping her middle finger back inside, slowly until her palm was flat against her slit. 

“W-wait…” the trembling voice stayed her hand.

“Are you okay?” she glanced at her lover’s face. She was biting her lip and her eyes were closed. She nodded.

“It’s just been a long time…,” she breathed, her eyes opened and blue locked with amber. “Okay...” she pressed her forehead against Jaune’s, eyes locked while she slowly pumped her finger in and out at an excruciatingly slow pace while her thumb circled slowly around her clit, moving close but never quite touching; driving Celeste to distraction. 

Her pace built slowly along with Celeste’s breaths

“More…” the pitched plea was made, her lips pressed to the shell of Jaune’s ear while she dug her nails into the blonde’s back. 

A second finger joined the other, stretching the tight muscles and making Celeste arched her back, pressing herself tightly against Jaune as she panted in her ear, sweat beading up on her forehead. 

“I’m… close…,” she whimpered, and finally, Jaune pressed her thumb over the little bundle of nerves and rubbed it mercilessly.

“Oh, oh god… Jaune…!” Her nails bit painfully into the skin of her shoulders and she trembled, but Jaune didn’t stop, not till after Celeste threw back her head and cried out, body seizing up for several long moments and jerking a few times before finally going limp in her arms, her breaths coming out in ragged breaths and Jaune smiled, brushing stray silver hairs out of her face.

“Are you alright?” she pressed a soft kiss to her temple. 

“Much better than alright,” she huffed, still getting her breathing back under control. “I forgot how much better it is when someone else does it…” She grinned, making Jaune chuckle. “Give me a minute and I’ll show you.” her grin turned wicked and Jaune’s heart rate spiked.

“If you're tired don’t worry about it…,” she assured her and that wicked smile turned soft as she sat up, pressing her hand to the side of the lawyer’s face, her thumb drawing gently across her lower lip, blue and amber locked. 

“You’re so sweet, Jaune. It’s one of the things I love about you…,” she admitted. “But I always return a favor, and more importantly…,” She leaned in until her warm breath was fanning over the blonde’s face. “I want to…, I want a taste…” she breathed, smiling at the red flush stretching up her face as she pressed a hand to the center of Jaune’s chest and gently pressing her back till she was laying flat on the bed and maneuvered herself around till she was laying between the blonde’s legs, pressing her lips against the inside of her thighs, occasionally nipping at the warm skin.

Honestly, she felt drunk, still riding the high from her orgasm, and looking up at the helpless and needy face Jaune was making made her grin. Jaune made it entirely too easy to tease her.

She traced a finger over the slit, making Jaune tremble.

“You’re so wet,” she mumbled. “Is that all for me?” she grinned, feeling the lawyer’s entire body tense up. Well, that wouldn’t do. 

She could spend all night teasing her but that would be cruel, especially after getting her off, even if she had been a smartass. 

The first swipe of her tongue made Jaune jerk her head back, her left hand threading through long silver hair, Celeste smiled to herself as every subsequent swipe of her tongue that wiggled between Jaune’s wet folds made her back come just a little more off the bed, her muscles were so tense Celeste was almost afraid she was going to hurt herself. 

She was inconsistent and wouldn’t let a pattern develop, keeping Jaune in a state of limbo, not enough pressure to push her toward the peak but not letting up enough for her to come down either.

“Celeste… please.” Jaune finally growled after several seemingly eternal minutes of this.

“Please what?” she echoed the blonde's earlier question, but as usual, Jaune was direct. 

“Please, just fuck me,” she groaned.

“All you had to do was ask, darling…” She smiled before wrapping an arm around one of the blonde’s thighs and wrapping her lips over that sensitive bundle of nerves that made Jaune fist her hand in the sheets, coming up off the bed with a deep growling sound that made Celeste shiver. 

That

She wanted to hear that again. 

Sucking on the blonde’s clit elicited a plethora of noises, but not the one she wanted. Carefully she worked in a finger till her palm was flush against her, and again Jaune growled pleasantly, the hand fisted in her hair pulled painfully but she hardly noticed, that sound did things to her that she couldn’t describe.

Nothing short of the house catching fire was going to keep her from getting what she wanted. 

Jaune was panting and consciously trying not to pull so hard on Celeste’s hair as she was pushed closer and closer to her peak. The muscles in her legs were twitching with the strain.

“Celeste…” The word was a strained whisper, barely audible over the wet noises Celeste was happily making between her thighs. 

A second finger joined the first, pushing against her tight walls. Her breath was ragged gasps now, back arched off the bed and then Celeste curled her fingers and Jaune saw stars, clamping her thighs around the baker’s head

“Fuck!” she yelled, head thrown back.

Her body jerked and spasmed for several long moments as Celeste drew out every last dreg of her orgasm with long swipes of her tongue. 

Finally, her whole body went limp, her breath coming out in halting huffs.

Sitting up, Celeste smiled down at the panting blonde, wiping at her face with the back of her arm.

“Shit…” Jaune croaked, making Celeste chuckle as she moved to lay beside the blonde, who looked at her tiredly through drooping eyes. 

She had enough strength to wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her close and laying a soft, slow kiss on her lips. Celeste hummed against her lips, wrapping her arms around the blondes back, fingers finding the raised welts her fingernails had made. Jaune winced.

“I’m sorry. Are you alright?” she mumbled against her collar, pressing her lips to an angry red bite mark visible there. 

“Fantastic.” She smiled tiredly, pressing her forehead against Celeste’s and closing her eyes. 

Celeste nuzzled closer, closing her eyes letting the nagging for sleep behind her eyes take over.


	10. Chapter 10

She really didn’t want to open her eyes.

Somewhere in the back of her brain, she knew it was Sunday, and that there was no rush for her to get out of bed, especially not right now. She was warm and cozy, cocooned in warm sheets. There was no blaring alarm and nothing she needed to be doing.

Something was off though. Instead of the lavender-scented sheets, she was used to. The ones currently wrapped around her smelled of citrus and maybe a hint of coffee?

Movement at her waist made her eyes pop open and suddenly she remembered where she was. She reached back and found the arm wrapped loosely around her waist and with a lazy smile, snuggled back deeper into the tall blonde spooning her. 

She was so accustomed to having to pop right out of bed first thing in the morning that now that she was up she wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep. Instead, she just laid there, gently running her thumb over the smooth, lean muscles of Jaune’s arm and enjoying the other woman’s warmth seeping into her skin. 

Maybe fifteen minutes later Jaune made a gurgling noise in her throat and began to shift, waking.

She stayed still, not exactly feigning sleep but she knew the blonde couldn’t see her face from her place behind her. 

The arm hanging over her waist squeezed a little tighter and then she could feel Jaune’s hot breath on the back of her neck before she felt the feather-light press of lips on her shoulder. 

She couldn’t help but hum and the ruse was up.

“G’ morning to you too.” She smiled too herself, feeling Jaune stiffen behind her.

“I’m sorry,” she grumbled, voice thick with sleep. “Did I wake you?” Her grip tightened, pulling Celeste closer if that were possible. The baker just smiled harder and managed to turn over to face her. 

Those usually bright and sharp amber eyes were blurry and only one was even open, the other closed tight against the morning sunlight filtering in through the windows. 

“No, I’ve been up a little bit,” she assured, pressing a soft kiss to her lips and leaned back. reaching up to run her thumb over a sharp cheekbone. A hand reached up to cover hers and she turned her head to press a kiss to Celeste’s palm. 

Her chest throbbed with a searing affection for the lawyer.

She tucked her head beneath her chin smiling against her neck. She felt more than heard Jaune’s chuckle and then fingers were sliding through her hair. They stayed that way for a while before Jaune let out a jaw splitting yawn.

"We can't stay here all day…" 

"I know…," she mumbled with a sigh, but still made no move to get up or release her hold on the blonde.

“Celeste,” she chuckled lowly.

“Fine…” She let go, letting the blonde up, catching sight of her head. She snorted, making Jaune look at her.

“I already know…,” she grumbled with a frown.

With a giggle, Celeste reached up to flick her fingers through the blonde hair sticking up in every direction on one side of her head.

“It’s cute,” she giggled, trying to press the usually pristine hair into place only for it to pop back up the second she moved her fingers away. 

“I’m going to take a shower…,” she mumbled, with a huff and climbed out of the bed. 

Celeste just laughed and snuggled back into the sheets. They were warm and she now realized the faint smell of citrus and coffee was just Jaune.

She closed her eyes and it seemed like only a minute had passed but the next thing she knew Jaune was shaking her shoulder.

“I hardly mind, but you can’t lay in my bed all day, Celeste.” she smiled as the groggy baker grumbled into her pillow. “If you want, you can take a shower though, I left you a towel and I have some clothes I think you can wear if you don’t want to put your dress back on.” 

“Fine…” she huffed into the pillow before finally looking up at the freshly showered lawyer, back in her jeans and a white button-down shirt, her wet hair combed into compliance. 

She was never going to be able to look at her in jeans the same way again. 

“Have you seen my underwear?” she asked with a yawn, pushing herself up on one elbow. 

Jaune reached down and held up the discarded bit of fabric on a single finger.

“Underwear is a strong word for this.” She grinned as Celeste took them and sat up.

“They served their purpose.” She smiled, flipping her mussed hair over her shoulder and standing up, the sheets falling away.

“Which was?” Jaune asked, watching her saunter over to the master bathroom.

“To get you to take them off.” She looked knowingly over her shoulder before closing the door.

“Well…,” Jaune crossed her arms. “They did do that…,” she admitted to the empty room. 

~ ~ ~

Twenty minutes later Celeste padded quietly down the hall in a pair of old, worn pajama pants she had to roll up at the ankles and a black t-shirt that was tight across her chest. Jaune was much taller and much smaller chested then herself, but nothing was uncomfortable and the shirt smelled pleasantly of some kind of faded cologne and the ever-present hint of coffee that seemed to always follow the blonde around.

Though it was unclear if it was the shirt that smelled like coffee once she walked into the kitchen to find the freshly brewed pot and Jaune standing over it with her mug.

“I hope that’s okay. I don’t have much that I don’t wear to work,” she said before taking a sip from her mug. “Do you want some tea?”

“They’re fine and yes, please.” She smiled, sliding onto one of the stools sitting at the island. 

She watched Jaune pull a small metal tin out of one of the cupboards and pull off the plastic seal before she realized something.

“I thought you didn’t like tea?”

“Can’t stand it,” she affirmed absentmindedly as she put the teabag in a mug and hit the hot water button on the fancy coffee machine.

"Does your mother drink tea?"

"My mother drinks wine," Jaune snorted.

"I'm curious why you have an unopened canister of black tea than." She dropped her chin into the palm of one hand and looked at Jaune with a curious but almost smug look.

The lawyer paused, hesitating for a brief moment.

"I bought it a long time ago…," she tried.

"I hate to call you a liar…," Celeste started trying not to grin too hard as a lawyer's cheeks tinted pink. She finally released a heavy sigh.

"I bought it the other day because I know you prefer black tea…," she finally confessed, pointedly not looking at the baker as she fiddled with the machine.

The knowing grin turned into a soft smile and she slipped off the stool and quietly walked up behind the blonde, wrapping her arms around her waist and laid her cheek against her back between her shoulder blades.

“I do appreciate the thought, darling, thank you,” 

She felt more than heard the acknowledging hum by the vibrations in her back.

“Here” 

Celeste stepped back as she turned to hand he the hot mug of steeping tea.

“Do you have to get back home anytime soon?” She looked up into amber eyes, the expression on her face seemed carefully neutral.

“I don’t have to go home for a while... unless you have things you need to do…”

“No!” Jaune quickly cut her off and then looked embarrassed all of a half-second before she cleared her throat. “No…,” she said again, but calmer. “I’d like for you to stay a while if you don’t have anything you need to be doing… but I know Sunday is the only day the bakery is closed and I don’t want to monopolize your time,” she said this with a guarded and almost neutral expression, but if Celeste had learned anything about Jaune over the last several weeks it was that she was terrible at concealing her emotions. At least with her. 

“That’s true…,” she agreed, toying with the string on the teabag, dunking it in and out of the water. “...but that means it’s the only day I can spend with you.” She looked up and couldn’t help but smile at the way those amber eyes lit up and the corners of her mouth twitched upwards.

“Breakfast then?” She asked. 

“Please” 

~ ~ ~

Since she didn’t have anything suitable to wear out, Jaune ordered breakfast for them and they sat on her back porch eating and talking.

Celeste could feel her phone go off a few times in her pocket but she ignored it just as Jaune ignored the ringing of her own from inside the house.

“It’s probably my mother, and she isn’t going anywhere.” She’d waved away the baker’s concerns. 

She knew it was probably her sister wondering where she was, but she was a grown woman and she had told Rose where she was going, it wasn’t as if she had just vanished without a word last night. 

She hit the button when Jaune went inside to get something and saw that she had two missed calls from Rose and rolled her eyes before holding down the button and shutting it off.

She would talk to her later. She just wanted to enjoy the day with Jaune. They both had crammed schedules and the time they had to spend together was limited to the short span of time between when they got off work and the time they went to bed most of the week. 

Sunday was her one day off and she wanted to spend it right here.

So she did.

It was nice to just sit, unhurried, and talk, ignoring everything else that normally divided their attention. Like work, and family. 

Both were talked about at length over the course of several more mugs of tea and coffee. It didn’t at all surprise Celeste that Jaune always seemed to smell of the strong drink. 

At one point they even managed to locate most of the buttons that had gone flying across the room the night before. She was still embarrassed about that but Jaune seemed more amused than anything else. 

At about four o’clock she knew she needed to head home, as much as didn’t really want too. She did need to do some laundry now.

Courtesy of Jaune, of course. 

She folded her dress over her arm, still wearing the other woman’s borrowed clothes as Jaune walked her out to her car. 

“I’ll get these back to you at the end of the week,” she promised, setting her things in the backseat.

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t wear them anymore,” she assured with a little wave.

“If you’re sure…,” she stalled and they both knew it if the way Jaune was smirking at her was anything to go by. 

“I’ll call you tomorrow.” She stepped forward, lifting up on her toes.

“I look forward to it.” Jaune leaned down, meeting her halfway in what was meant to be a quick kiss but quickly drew itself out until they were breathless.

It was only reluctantly that Celeste moved away and climbed into her car and drove home. 

The shop was quiet but once she entered the stairwell she could hear that her sister’s apartment door was open and she knew that she was probably being waited on. 

Sure enough Rose appeared just as she was passing their door.

“Where have you been?!” The teacher came out of her apartment, fists on her hips and frowning deeply. Celeste sighed to herself as she turned to face her sister.

“I told you last night I was going to Jaune’s and that I probably wouldn’t be back until today.” 

“You said not to ‘wait up’ you didn’t say anything about not coming home at all!” She stomped a foot and looked at her sister up and down. “I can see why you didn’t since those are definitely not your clothes…” She crossed her arms over her chest. 

Something about the statement and the way she said it made a hot anger pool in her belly.

“Rose, I’m thirty-two years old, I do not need to check in with you and I especially do not need your permission to have sex.” She turned and started up the stairs to her own apartment without another word.

Rose followed, fuming.

“Well excuse the hell out of me for being worried when you didn’t come home and didn’t answer your phone all day!” she shouted. 

“I was with Jaune!”

“A woman I’ve only ever passed by and you’ve only known a month. She could have murdered you!” She threw up her hands as they stopped in front of her door. Celeste whipped around to face her.

“You don’t know anything about her!” Her voice was low and cold. Rose glared right back.

“You’re right, I don’t, you know what I do know? I know that one night out parents went out and they never came home either! So excuse me for worrying about you!” she screeched.

They stared at each other for several long, tense moments before Celeste sighed tiredly.

“Alright, yes, I should have texted you that I was with her all day, but you are not my keeper, Rose and you don’t get to make judgments about Jaune like that...” 

Rose pursed her lips, looking like she wanted to keep fighting but she seemed to deflate with a sigh.

“I was just worried, I don’t know her.” She crossed her arms. 

“You’re right, but she’s going to be around quite a lot from now on I think… so you need to…”

The younger woman still didn’t look happy but grunted, her way of agreeing while still mad. 

“And what do you suggest…?” 

“I’ll talk to her and figure something out,” she promised.

“Fine…,” she huffed but it looked like she still wanted to say something.

Celeste looked at her, both eyebrows raised in silent question.

“...how was it?” she finally asked.

Celeste let out a breathy laugh.

“Wonderful”


	11. chapter 11

What do you think about camping?” Celeste asked while they had dinner in a restaurant two weeks after she had spent the night at Jaune’s place. 

This was the first time they had seen each other since that Sunday morning because Celeste had an influx of graduation cake orders for all the upcoming graduation parties that required her and both her assistants to work nearly nonstop the previous weekend.

Jaune had been disappointed by not being able to see her but she understood and had used the weekend to get ahead in her own work, and it wasn’t as though they didn’t talk on the phone whenever they had a free moment, texting during their lunches or whenever they took breaks. 

Finally, it was the end of May and all the orders had been picked up for the parties going on this weekend, and Celeste had invited her out to dinner, which Jaune quickly accepted; more than a little eager to see her. 

The two weeks gave Celeste time to think of ways she could get her girlfriend to interact with her family so Rose wouldn’t be so suspicious and untrusting of Jaune.

“Camping, like outside in a tent?” She looked up from her dinner and asked.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Next weekend my sister, brother in law and I are taking Steven camping for the long weekend, I was wondering if you’d want to come with us…” 

“It sounds like a family trip to me…” Jaune was looking back down at her food.

“Yes, but, Rose… she was not at all happy with me for not telling her that I hadn’t planned to come back from your place till later Sunday, she was afraid you’d murdered me,” she snorted.

“What?” Jaune looked up at that, eyes wide. 

“Not seriously… probably,” she mumbled the last part under her breath. “It’s just that they don’t know you at all yet, so I think spending so much time with you makes my sister a little nervous," she explained. 

Jaune hummed, picking at her food. She understood what Celeste was talking about, she and her sister and her family were very close and she was going to have to get to know them if she intended to hang around, but she had never really been an outdoor person. In fact, she normally actively avoided that kind of thing. She sunburned horribly and was an attractant to mosquitoes. Were it anything else there wouldn’t have been a once of hesitation. 

“I’m not sure, Celeste, I...,” she started and could see the ever so slightly disappointed look that began to creep onto her girlfriends face that she was trying to hide and immediately felt guilt creep up on her that that beautiful face should ever be anything but happy. 

“I don’t really know how to camp, I’ve never been,” she said instead of what she wanted to say, which was that she didn’t now nor ever, had any interest in camping. 

Celeste seemed to perk up at that.

“It’s really not hard,” she promised. “We used to go all the time as kids, I can teach you. It’s really a lot of fun, this will be the first time we’ve ever taken Steven,” she excitedly rambled off and Jaune knew, one way or another, she was going to end up camping.

~ ~ ~

It was still pitch black out when she pulled up in front of the bakery the following Saturday. The street was devoid of cars, the only light coming from the streetlamps. The neon green light from her radio clock glowed in the darkness, showing the time.

4:55 AM

She yawned and turned off the ignition and grabbed her to-go cup of coffee and climbed out of her car. She pulled her duffle bag out of the backseat and closed the door before hitting the lock on the key fob. 

The shop’s front door was open as promised, and she quietly made her way through the dark shop into the kitchen. Everything was dark and still in here as well. She climbed the dark stairwell up to the third floor. Bypassing the second-floor apartment, only glancing at it as she moved up the stairs to the top floor and knocked on the door.

It was only a few seconds before the door swung open, revealing her broadly grinning girlfriend.

“You’re right on time.” She stepped forward and Jaune smiled to herself as she stood on her toes to peck the lawyer’s lips. “Did you get everything you needed?

“I think so.” she gave her duffle bag a shake, drawing the baker’s gaze downward.

“Great, we should be leaving in just a few minutes. You can come in, I’m just finishing up a few things…” She moved to let the blonde come in as she disappeared down a hall. 

Jaune sat her bag on the floor by the door as she walked in. This was the first time she had ever been inside Celeste’s apartment and somehow it was exactly as she figured it would be.

The living room was painted in a pale blue like the bakery lobby downstairs and the furniture was a light pine colored wood with white accents, giving the place a light airy feeling.

She spotted the kitchen and remembering all of the baker’s comments about her own kitchen let curiosity get the better of her as she walked over to inspect the area. 

It was clean, with everything seemingly put away in its proper place, but it was a bit… cramped. The fridge was pushed up against the side of the stove on one side, the only bits of counter space held a block of knives and a couple of cutting boards. The spice rack was hung up by magnets on the side of the fridge, facing the stove. 

On the other side was the sink and equal parts, small squares of counter space as the other side.

Jaune glanced at the fridge door, covered in various photos and slips of paper with cute little magnets. 

A family photo of Steven and his parents, one of the boy and Celeste at the park it looked like, and another, much older one nestled between a grocery list and some bills.

It looked like it was taken in the woods, around a firepit. 

A couple, maybe in their later twenties, with two young girls standing in front of them, both dressed in winter pants and jackets, The smaller girl had a head of thick curly hair and the other had long silver-white hair falling over her shoulders and in front of her cobalt eyes. All four were smiling brightly at the camera. 

“Recognize them?” A voice whispered in her ear making her jump, whipping around to find Celeste smiling at her. 

“I’m sorry…,” Jaune started, but Celeste just laughed. 

“I wouldn’t have let you come in and left you alone if I didn’t expect you to look around, Jaune. It’s fine,” she assured her with an easy smile. 

“Your family?” Jaune asked though it wasn’t really a question. 

“Mhmm” Was the affirmative. “They didn’t really like taking photos, so there aren’t many.” She looked at the faded photo with its stains and tiny tears on the edges fondly. “It was from one of our camping trips.” 

"So I see…"

"Rose is especially excited to start taking Steven. It was one of the few things our parents ever did with us. They worked a lot the rest of the time. Those trips were some of the few times we got to spend with them when they weren’t exhausted from work," she explained. 

“I can relate,” Jaune said, still studying the photo but Celeste was now studying her.

“Oh?” 

“My father had just started his own practice after I was born, he worked constantly, even on most weekends he had other things he needed to be doing, but some of my fondest memories of him are of the two of us sitting in the living room playing chess all day when I was a kid.” She said this while starring at the photo but it was apparent by the hooded look in her eyes that she was far away. 

“Is that a touchy subject for you?” Celeste asked, bringing the lawyer back and making her turn to look at the baker.

“What, my father?” she asked looking confused. Celeste nodded. 

“You very rarely talk about him…” She had noticed this over the month and a half they had been seeing each other. 

“Ah, no. It’s just… I guess that there’s no one to talk about him with is all. My mother has mentioned him maybe all of three times since he died.” She shrugged and Celeste frowned.

“Does…” she paused, unsure how or even if to phrase her question. “Does she not miss him?” she finally said. Jaune blinked, wide-eyed at the question, as though she couldn’t fathom a more ridiculous question.

“I understand why you might think that. I know how my mother seems to come off,” she admitted. “She misses him very much, I imagine talking about him just hurts her. My parents loved each other madly, though I doubt I’ll ever understand it, they were…. very different,” she chuckled. “A lawyer and a cabaret dancer.” She grinned. 

“How did they meet?” Celeste looked at the grinning face and couldn’t help but smile herself.

“Ah, from what I’ve always been told, when my mother was about twenty she was doing a show one night and some guy got grabby and yanked her off stage, she landed in the orchestra pit and cracked her head open on some equipment.” She pointed to her own forehead where her mother now had a broad, but faded scar in the center of her forehead, one usually covered with makeup.

Celeste grimaced at that.

“The next thing she knew she was being picked up and carried off by a man to the parking lot to go to the hospital, dripping blood all over his car. He stayed with her until someone else came. That was my father.” 

“Oh, wow. That certainly would make an impression wouldn't it?" 

"Apparently." Jaune crossed her arms. "They were inseparable ever after..." Her thoughts turned to her mother, no doubt asleep at home, alone in that gigantic house. Celeste’s voice drew her attention back to the present. 

"So you got your dashing charm from him it seems. " She smiled toothily as the blonde flushed and cleared her throat.

“Maybe so…,” she managed to quickly pull herself together and smirk, despite the hint of color still dusting her face. 

They were to busy flirting to notice the front door open or the footsteps quickly approaching. 

“It’s kind of early in the morning for that isn’t it?” 

Both jolted as Rose made herself known, standing at the edge of the kitchen with her arms folded over her chest and giving them both a look.

“I was just getting the last of my things together,” Celeste said, giving her sister an annoyed look that left little to interpretation. The kindergarten teacher didn’t seem affected at all.

“Greg is loading the van downstairs, we’re just waiting for you two.” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder toward the front door.

“We’ll be down in a moment,” the tone of Celeste’s voice left no room for argument. 

”Don’t be long.” Were her parting words as she turned and left the apartment as quickly as she had come. Celeste rolled her eyes. 

Ever since their brief argument two weeks ago she had been rather touchy whenever the topic of Jaune came up and she understood why, really. As far as Rose was concerned Jaune was a stranger she had never even properly been introduced to that she was spending all her free time with. 

She desperately hoped that this trip might help alleviate some of that and if nothing else put Rose at ease when she was with the blonde for any extended periods of time.

Like overnight. 

“She doesn’t like me,” Jaune stated plainly. 

“It’s not that she doesn’t like you, darling, she just doesn’t know you yet. I’m confident though that by the end of this trip if you’re your usual, charming self, she won’t be near as suspicious of you.” She reached out and took hold of one of Jaune’s hands.

“I know we haven’t been seeing each other very long, but it should be obvious that I care for you very much, Jaune.” She squeezed the blonde’s fingers. “I really need the two of you to get along.” 

“I’ll try.” She squeezed back.

“That’s all I ask.” she smiled. “We better get going now.”

Celeste locked the door and the quickly walked downstairs to the front of the shop.

“What is that?” Jaune asked as they stepped out onto the cement outside the shop. 

A large, 70’s style van with a space mural painted on the side along with the words ‘Mr. Universe’ in large blocky font sat out front with the headlights on and the back doors open.

A man's head popped out from behind the doors and smiled at the two of them before walking over.

“Hey, Celeste, and you must be Jaune.” He held out his hand which Jaune reached out to shake on instinct if nothing else. 

“Jaune, this is my sister’s husband, Greg.” Celeste introduced the slightly rotund man with a mullet. 

“Nice to meet you,” she offered.

“Ditto, hopefully, we all have a good time this weekend.” He glanced a little nervously at his wife, strapping their young son into his car seat and Jaune realized that this man must be well aware of his wife’s animosity to her, though he seemed far more friendly. 

“Let me take your bags.” He reached out and Celeste handed over her, so Jaune gave it to him. 

He tossed them in the back and held his arm out to the open doors of the back of the van

“After you, ladies and we can get this show on the road. 

“What?”


	12. Chapter 12

They had long left the city behind by the time the sun began to rise over the horizon, filling the van windows with streaks of bright warm sunlight. 

Rose and Greg sat in the front seats, talking quietly to each other over the low noise of the radio with Steven strapped into the car seat bolted to the van floor behind the driver’s side chair.

Meanwhile, she and Celeste sat on the metal floor of the van with the bags, bobbing along with every dip and pothole in the road. Celeste’s head was resting on the blonde’s shoulder, eyes closed, though Jaune was sure that she wasn’t asleep.

She had her hands in her lap and her head leaned back against the metal, occasionally glancing at the other occupants of the van but for the most part, was lost in her thoughts. 

She had already decided that she wasn’t going to think about work at all this weekend. It would still be there on Tuesday. She’d promised Celeste that she would try her best to get along with her family, though it seemed like it was really only Rose she was going to have any problems with and she hadn’t even done anything.

She snorted to herself at that, the more she thought about it the more annoyed she was that she was being assumed guilty of something she hadn't even done. She took a deep breath through her nose and tried to reel back the annoyance that could so quickly turn into seering anger if she wasn’t careful. 

She had made a promise and she had every intention of honoring it.

Movement at her side made her eyes slide to look at Celeste, who was now looking up at her with a look that was far to tender for this early in the morning.

“What?” she asked quietly, not just because she didn’t fancy Greg or Rose overhearing them but because Steven was fast asleep in his car seat. 

“I’m just really glad you came with us,” she mumbled, reaching over and wrapping her fingers around one of the hands sitting on her thighs. 

Had she been obvious in her distaste for this kind of thing? She didn’t think she had. 

Celeste smiled, seeming to sense her thoughts, or perhaps she was merely reading the lawyer’s face. 

“Just knowing what I know about you and your hobbies, I get the feeling this isn’t really your idea of a good time.” She looked at Jaune with a knowing little smile.

Caught, there was no reason to pretend otherwise and insult the baker’s intelligence. 

“No, I’m really not the outdoors type,” she confirmed with a grimace but Celeste only smiled and leaned up to press a soft kiss to her cheek.

“I’ll make it up to you,” she promised quietly.

“There’s nothing to make up,” Jaune mumbled, squeezing back the fingers that were still wrapped around her own. “You’re happy and that’s good enough for me.” 

The way Celeste was looking at her made her insides bubble nervously, but before the baker could say anything the van pulled to a gentle stop, and Greg turned around in his seat with a grin. 

"Were here!' he announced loudly, causing his son to stir as he climbed out the van. Rose turned around and started unbuckling the boy just as the vans double doors opened.

"Finally…," Jaune mumbled as she and Celeste carefully climb down to the back and out into the warm sunlight to stretch out their stiff limbs

The overwhelming scent of wet Earth and grass hit Jaune before anything else. The campsite was surrounded on all sides by towering trees with dirt paths winding and twisting between the foliage on the forest floor, maybe fifty yards away she could see the glistening water of the lake, reflecting blinding sun rays off its surface.

“Oh, the weather is perfect!” Celeste smiled brightly as she stretched her arms over her head. Jaune could admit it was beautiful, but despite the fact that it was still early morning, it was already starting to get warm. She rolled up the sleeves of the red and gold plaid shirt. It was still stiff.

She’d had to go out and buy clothes just for this trip, except for her jeans, the two shirts, and hiking boots were new. 

"I'm gonna start getting set up," Greg called as he started tossing bags out of the back of the van. "Heads up Jaune!" He called just as a long black bag came flying out towards her. 

She managed to turn and put her hands up just as the heavy canvas bag flew into her chest. Knocking the wind out of her. 

"Good catch! That's your and Celeste's tent," he said before turning back around and digging through the bags.

Celeste giggled at the disgruntled look on her girlfriend’s face but Rose was quickly calling out to her.

“Come help me with the food!” she called, setting Steven down on the ground. 

She glanced back at Jaune, maneuvering the canvas bag to fit better in her grip.

“Are you okay to work on that by yourself?” she asked. Jaune straightened up at that. 

“If I can pass the bar exam I can set up a tent,” she assured. Celeste nodded and without another word went over to help Rose unload the ice chests of food. 

Picking a spot away from the firepit, with fairly flat ground, she dropped the bag and dug out its contents, a bunch of poles, connected by elastic and the tent itself. 

No instructions, however. 

How hard could it be, she had seen plenty of tents before.

Twenty minutes later she hated the damn thing with a fiery passion.

She put one foot on the tent and stretched one pole from its slot in the bottom toward the one at the top.

It acted like it didn’t want to fit but after much, too much, trial and error, it had to go here!

She grumbled angrily to herself under her breath as she forced the plastic rod closer to the slot. It bowed dangerously as she pressed it. 

She was so engrossed in getting the tent put together that she didn’t notice the six-year-old coming up behind her while his parents and aunt were busy.

“Hi, Jaune!” The boy called with a grin, making the lawyer jump. Her grip on the pressured pole slipped and it shot out of her hand, snapping back and cracking her in the face.

The blonde's world was awash in bright pain. Her hands flew up to cover her face, muffling the string of curses and hissing. 

She must have cried out because the next thing she knew Celeste and Rose had come running over.

“Are you alright?” Celeste fussed, hands flittering about the lawyer’s face, unsure if she should touch or not yet until Jaune moved her hands. 

“Steven!” Rose knelt down to her son’s level. “What did we say about sneaking up on people when they’re doing things?” She asked sternly and the boy frowned, looking down at his feet.

“Not to…” was the hushed reply. 

“You have to let me see…” Celeste grabbed both Jaune’s wrists and carefully peeled them away from her face and hissed at the long, diagonal welt that crossed Jaune’s face from just under her right eye to the left of her chin, practically glowing red. Blood was slowly seeping out on her cheek where she had taken the brunt of the force and on her lip.

“It’s not that bad, but let’s clean it up.” She tugged her by the hand over to the van and sat her down, legs hanging over the bumper.

After digging around in her own bag for a few seconds she came back with a little metal box and flipped the lid, digging out a few little square packages. 

“This will sting a little,” she warned, opening one of the packages and pulling out a little white square and began gently rubbing at the furiously colored mark that bisected her face.

Jaune hissed at the burning alcohol on her already painful injury.

“Sorry,” Celeste mumbled, working quickly. Once it was clean she gently pressed a bandage to the bleeding portion over her cheek. The rest would just have to go back down on its own.

She glanced over at the tent still laying in a heap on the ground.

“I’m curious how well you actually did on the bar exam…” she grinned as the rest of Jaune’s face turned as red as the welt at her teasing. “I assume you’ve never put a tent together before?” 

“What gave me away?” Jaune huffed, crossing her arms, and Celeste grinned.

“Let me help?” she offered. Jaune just nodded. 

With Celeste’s more experienced knowledge, it took all of ten minutes to get the tent set up, much to Jaune’s chagrin, which was only amplified by the stinging of her face.

Once camp was fully set up Rose declared they were heading down to the lake.

The sister’s and Steven disappeared into the tents to change while Greg dug around inside the back of the van, making a commotion in the otherwise quiet woods. He finally emerged with several fishing poles and a tackle box under one arm. He immediately noticed the blonde standing alone in the middle of the camp.

“You’re not going swimming?” He questioned, hopping out of the van.

“I burn easily,” she explained.

“Oh, yeah, it’s gonna be a hot one today. Why don’t you come fish with me? You can use one of my poles,” he offered.

“Thank you, Greg, but I don’t know how to fish.”

“Oh, well, it’s never too late to learn if you want.” He was grinning and holding out one of his poles, and honestly, her other option was just sitting on the shore or staying here in camp and she knew that wasn’t going to fly with Celeste.

“Alright…” She took the offered fishing pole just as Celeste came out of their tent, and no, she wasn’t starring at the blue and white striped bikini.

“You’re going with Greg?” she asked, wrapping a towel around her waist as she walked up to them. 

"Apparently"

“I’ll meet you down at the water.” Greg took the rest of the gear and walked down the path leading to the water. 

"I was hoping you'd come with us." She crossed her arms beneath her chest and pouted. Jaune had no doubt in her mind about what the silver-haired baker was trying to do with the display.

“I burn easily, it’s best I keep my clothes on.” She shrugged and Celeste stepped forward until they were nearly nose to nose.

“But I like you with your clothes off,” she said with a smile that made the blonde's insides flip.

“Ahem!” 

They both jerked as Rose made her presence known with a loud clearing of her throat. 

She and Steven were standing several feet away. He was looking at them curiously in his swim trunks while Rose had both fists on her one-piece suited hips, giving them both an unapproving look. 

“We’ll talk about it later,” Celeste promised with a little grin, stepping away to once again let light filter between them. “Let’s get down to the water.” She turned to Rose. 

Rose gave her a look as she passed by that the blonde couldn’t quite decipher, not hostile as she would have expected but not exactly friendly either. More like, suspicious curiosity.

‘Don’t worry about her.” Celeste said quietly in her ear before they followed Rose and Steven down the worn dirt path that led to the shore. Once at the water they parted ways as the three waded into the water and Jaune walked along the sandy shore to Greg, sitting about eighty yards away on the dock. 

The rickety boards squeaked under her feet, the wood nearly bleached white from who knew how long sitting under the unrelenting sun year after year. 

He looked up as she approached and smiled brightly.

He quickly went over the basics and then they were sitting quietly next to each other, watching their corks bob around the surface, waiting.

Jaune rather enjoyed this. Maybe it wasn’t the most exciting thing at the moment but it was quiet and calming. 

“So… you and Celeste, how’s that going?” Greg said out of nowhere, prompting her to look at him. After a handful of seconds, he just shrugged awkwardly and Jaune sighed to herself. 

“Fine. She’s wonderful and I’m… very fond of her.” That was putting it mildly but she was also talking to the woman’s brother in law. 

“Celeste is a sweety,” Greg agreed with a smile. “There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for the people she loves. Inf fact, she had only just bought the bakery’s building when Rose and I got married and when she got pregnant I was kind of… between paying gigs, so she let us live in the second-floor apartment for free, instead of in my van, where I was living before.” He chuckled and scratched the back of his head. 

He was quiet for a long few moments before he was again looking at her.

“I think its why Rose is… distrustful of you.” His face turned more serious. “It’s not really my place to talk about it, but someone she was seeing took advantage of Celeste’s good nature before… my sister in law feels deeply and cares wholly, so Rose and I both worry about her.”

“The way Celeste tells it is Rose was the one pushing her to date in the first place.” Jaune frowned and Greg nodded.

“She did, she wanted her to have some fun, some throw away dates, ease back into it after she got hurt, ya know? Rose didn’t expect the first person she went out with to really stick, but here you are.” He grinned. “Rose is suspicious enough for the both of us, so if you really don’t have any intention of hurting her…” Jaune seemed to bow up at that, frowning severely. “...then Rose will warm up to you before long.” He hurriedly finished. “She’s seemed really happy over the last few weeks, so I’m happy.” 

Jaune hummed at that before the man started talking about something else.

~ ~ ~  
“You’re a real horndog, you know that?” Rose said, sitting on a towel next to her sister as they dried while they watched Steven play in the sand several feet away.

She heard her older sister snort. 

“I didn’t realize it was illegal to be attracted to someone you’re dating,” she replied smartly. “And you say that as though I didn’t pull you, more than half-naked out of that van on at least two occasions.” she retorted.

“We’re not talking about me!” Rose, red-faced, hissed, turning finally to look at her sister, who was looking back at her tiredly, already exasperated by this conversation. She took a deep breath after a long few seconds of staring each other down.

“I just want you to be safe…” Rose finally said.

“Well, I’m not going to get pregnant…,” she said deadpan.

“You know what I meant!” Rose nearly screeched, drawing her son’s gaze for a few seconds before he went back to his sandcastle. 

“Rose,” Celeste started in a tone that left no room for her to be interrupted. “I know that after… what happened before you worry, but if nothing else, I’ve learned from those experiences. Now you need to trust me and the fact that I trust Jaune. She’s kind and sweet and goes out of her way to do things for me. Our relationship is nothing like the ones I’ve had in the past. I think it’s one of the reasons honestly I feel myself falling for her so quickly. So please, just trust me?” 

Rose pursed her lips together tightly for several long seconds before heaving a sigh. 

“Fine, fine I’ll trust you…” she sagged back onto her towel and folded her arms over her eyes. 

“Thank you.”

The teacher just grunted.

~ ~ ~  
“Where did you two go fishing, the sun?” Rose asked, hands on her hips as they looked at the sunburned faces of the lawyer and musician. 

“We forgot the sunscreen…,” Greg admitted with a sheepish grin. “But look at this!” He held up their catch. 

“Well, you two seemed to have a productive day.” Rose smiled as Greg held up the long stringer full of decent-sized fish the two had caught. 

“Fish fry for dinner!” Greg grinned at the rest of his family. “Come help me clean them, Rose.” He walked over to the van with Rose right behind him.

“You’re a little red…” Celeste frowned, looking at Jaune’s sunburned face. It wasn’t awful but it probably hurt nonetheless. 

“I know…,” she huffed, trying not to move her face too much. 

“I’ll get the aloe out of my bag…” she smiled sympathetically and went to retrieve the gel. 

“Did you have fun with Greg?” she asked when she came back and carefully swiped some of the cooling gel over the blonde’s burned cheeks and forehead

“Surprisingly, I did. I think I actually like fishing too…” she winced as Celeste swiped the gel over her nose. “He did talk, just a little, about why Rose is so wary of me.” 

“Oh?” 

“Something… about a previous relationship?” She said uncertainly. Celeste seemed to freeze at that, frowning. 

“He told you about that did he?” she asked quietly.

“All he said was that someone you were seeing before took advantage of you. Nothing more,” she said quietly. Watching Celeste wring her hands around the bottle of aloe. 

“I suppose you want to know what that’s about...,” she started.

“No,” Jaune stopped her with a raised hand.

“No?” she repeated, eyebrows drawing down between her eyes in clear confusion. 

“It’s none of my business, especially If it’s not something you don’t want to talk to me about. It’s enough that you know that I, will never do anything to intentionally hurt you,” she promised quietly.

Celeste stared at her for a long moment before tears started to well up in the corners of her eyes and Jaune jerked.

“I… I’m sorry, Celeste…” she started but she just started shaking her head and wiped at the few tears that had managed to squeeze their way through.

“No… don’t apologize, I’m sorry about that.” She pressed herself squarely against the lawyer, whose arms wrapped around her waist on instinct more than anything else as she pressed her head beneath her chin.

“Thank you, Jaune,” she mumbled, nuzzling her face into her neck. “You have no idea how much I appreciate that…,” she breathed.

Jaune just squeezed her a little tighter, unaware of the couple watching from around the open van doors.


	13. Chapter 13

She woke up sweating.

Some of that probably had to do with Celeste, suctioned up against her back under their shared blanket and radiating body heat like a furnace, but most of it was probably the green, polyester prison she was currently steaming alive inside.

It felt like a sauna inside the tent and she could already feel her bad mood rearing its ugly head as she became aware of everything sticking to every inch of her

The clamminess of her skin wasn’t doing a lot for her sunburn either, but she was torn. Celeste was pressed up against her back, with an arm slung over her waist and her face buried in between her shoulder blades, sleeping peacefully. 

Now she was faced with the task of escaping Celeste’s grip and this prison without waking the slumbering baker, who was currently breathing hot air on her already too hot skin; which ultimately was the deciding factor. 

She carefully and almost painfully, slowly pulled at each of her fingers knotted into the black fabric of the tank top the blonde had slept in till Celeste’s hand hung loosely over her waist. She slowly wiggled herself out from beneath the blanket, silently cursing under her breath and setting Celeste’s arm gently on the ground, no easy task with everything sticking to her damp skin. 

The tents zipper may as well have sounded like a hail of gunfire as loud as it was in the quiet of the morning and the low sounds of Celeste’s breathing, but she never moved as Jaune crawled out of the tent, trying to make as little noise as possible. 

She zipped it back up and sighed in relief as she stretched out to full height and the cool air hit her damp skin.

She cringed at the idea of another night in the damned thing as she ran a hand through her hair, pushing some wet strands away from her forehead and trying to finger comb what she was sure was outrageous bedhead, into submission.

The campsite was empty save for the other tent, from which she could hear faint snoring, otherwise it was perfectly quiet save for the ambient sounds of the woods all around her.

There was a light breeze blowing, rustling the bright green leaves overhead and the dull, distant humming of cicadas that always accompanied summer and was the telltale sign of a hot day. 

The sun was still sitting just behind the treeline on the opposite side of the lake-shore, casting long, glimmering rays of light across the water that shone so brightly it blinded her when she looked right at them. 

She could use a little cool water to wash off her face and a short walk to stretch her stiff muscles. Normally she wouldn’t be comfortable walking around outside in the shorts and tank top she slept in but she was hot and groggy and couldn’t care less, especially since their little campsite and section of the lake seemed to be isolated from anyone else, as she had yet to see anyone else except the occasional person in a boat. 

She carefully picked her way down to the water’s edge with her bare feet and wadded out into the water up to her knees, it was cool. She stuck her cupped hands in and splashed the water on her face, and her grumpy, heat-induced mood was quickly evaporating with the water trickling down her face. 

She sighed to herself, completely forgetting she’d ever been grouchy to start with. She picked up another handful of water and just let it run through her fingers, taking the quiet moment to just be, for once.

Except for the little ripples she was making as water dripped from her fingers the lake appeared like a smooth, unblemished mirror. Her reflection stared back at her from the smooth dark water, red-faced, and hair a mess. 

She ran her wet fingers through her hair, pushing the pale yellow strands carefully into place.

Except for the painful sunburn she now had... and getting smacked in the face with the tent pole…. And the tent itself… she wasn't having as bad a time as she thought she might.

Not a great time either, mind you, but decent enough that she wasn’t going to complain, especially not to Celeste, or make her think that she was having a terrible time. She recognized how important this trip was to her girlfriend.

She had still yet to really interact with Rose at all. She wasn’t sure exactly what she was supposed to do or say. She certainly wasn’t going to prostrate herself to the twenty-eight year old school teacher. If she wanted to continue sending dirty looks her way for no reason then so be it.

She now had a better understanding of the situation but she had done nothing to warrant the younger woman’s suspicion and she wasn’t going to act as though she had. 

She would be cordial and make any and all attempts to be friendly to Rose, but she had her pride, she was not going to beg for anything. 

She was so lost in her thoughts, staring into her reflection in the water that she never heard the quietly approaching steps. 

After a few minutes, she shook the excess water from her hands as she turned and stopped, finally noticing Celeste, sitting cross-legged on a large rock and smiling at her from the shore.

“Good morning,” she greeted, wading out of the water. “Did I wake you?”

“Good morning yourself and no, it was a bit hot in the tent, though I suspect you knew that already,” she laughed, looking at the lawyer, now damp with lake water.

“It was a little warm…,” she tentatively agreed but said no more. She wasn’t going to complain, she wasn’t. Celeste smiled knowingly, but didn’t comment on it further. 

“How’s your face feeling?” She scooted off the rock to stand in front of Jaune. Cobalt eyes roaming over the burned skin of her face. 

“Tender, but I’ll live,” she assured, lips curling into a smile as she watched Celeste examine her face with an amusing amount of concentration. 

“Well, for that I’m glad,” she chuckled and laid a quick peck to the blonde’s cheek. “We’re supposed to go hiking once they get up, are you coming?”

“Of course” 

It hardly mattered that she had never hiked before in her life, nor that her interest in it was minimal at best. She had already agreed to come on this trip, knowing it wouldn’t be her thing, but she refused to damper her girlfriend’s mood by turning down the activities. She wasn’t going to ruin the family’s time when she had come knowing she wouldn’t have a good time. She would suck it up; it was one weekend. 

“You’re going to need a hat, we don’t want your burn to get worse…” Celeste hummed. 

Jaune made a face. She wasn’t really a hat person… even if it was a valid point. She really didn’t want that to happen.

“You’ll live,” Celeste smirked, seeing the look. “If you’re done down here you can come help me make breakfast.” She held out her hand and Jaune didn’t hesitate to take it. Celeste just smiled, lacing her fingers between hers. 

The other tent was still closed when they got back up the hill. 

“I’m going to change,” Jaune said before crawling back inside the slow cooker that was their tent. She made quick work of it, eager to get back outside and changing inside the small space was no easy feat to start with for most people, much less someone as tall as her. 

When she came back out Celeste had already started cooking on the small portable grill they had brought along and the smell of cooking eggs and sausage filled the air along with the coffee from the percolator sitting on the metal grates. She sat on the log nearby with her cup, waiting on the coffee. 

Within a few minutes, loud shuffling and grunting noises started coming out of the red tent.

Jaune watched silently as the zipper suddenly opened up just enough for Steven to come crawling out with a bright grin. He made a beeline for his aunt, attaching himself to her legs.

“Morning!” He grinned brightly, much too cheerful for someone who just woke up. 

“Good morning, love.” She bent down to place a kiss atop his black curls. 

Jaune watched as she poured boiling hot coffee into her mug, catching the boys attention. He detached himself from Celeste to jog over, clambering up onto the log beside her.

"Hi, Jaune." He smiled up at the blonde with his wide, gapped tooth smile and she couldn't help but smile back.

“Good morning, Steven.” 

"Are you going hiking with us?" he asked.

"I am." she nodded, taking a drink of the dark, steaming liquid. 

Celeste watched the two out of the corner of her eye as Steven talked and Jaune nodded along, occasionally throwing out short answers between sips of her coffee.

She smiled to herself.

Steven seemed rather fond of the lawyer, who was always happy to indulge the child's long-winded and often off the wall conversations and topics that changed at the drop of a hat.

Something she was convinced he had inherited from his mother. 

With low groans and grunts the red tent finally unzipped all the way and Rose came crawling out, looking haggard as she climbed to her feet and shuffled over to them.

“Good morning” Celeste greeted, moving eggs around the pan with a spatula. 

Rose grunted out a word that almost sounded like ‘morning’ before grabbing one of the empty mugs and filling it with coffee.

Greg followed a moment later with a jaw cracking yawn as he rolled out, inch worming his way out on his back. 

“Morning everyone,” he called out. 

Steven abandoned his place beside Jaune to jog over to where his dad was laying on the ground and climb on top of him.

“Ughh” Greg groaned. “Steven please,” he rasped, closing his eyes, resigned. 

Jaune snorted into her cup with a small grin. 

~ ~~ 

After breakfast, camp was cleaned up and they set off down the trail into the woods.

Greg and Rose walked ahead, trying to keep up with Steven, running around and across the trail, climbing onto every rock and log he could find and jumping off them while giggling madly as he ran about, inspecting every plant, bug, animal and rock he could find.

Jaune and Celeste brought up the rear, walking a leisurely pace while Jaune fiddled with the wide-brimmed fishing hat she had been forced to wear to keep the sun off her already burnt face. 

She grumbled to herself under her breath as she pulled at the canvas material.

"It's fine, Jaune." Celeste rolled her eyes, exasperated with the blonde’s mumbling under her breath.

With a huff she finally took her hands away from the hat, but was still scowling.

"I'm not a hat person…," she huffed, fingers itching to go back and continue to mess with it.

Celeste reached out and wrapped her fingers around the lawyer's right hand before she could think to fiddle with it again. 

“Maybe it’s not your best look, but you need to keep the sun off your face,” she reminded, squeezing the fingers wrapped in hers.

Jaune made an unhappy noise but squeezed back and didn’t touch the hat again. Celeste just smiled to herself. 

Luckily most of their hike through the woods, they were shaded by the trees that lined the path, especially as the sun continued it’s journey overhead, heating up the air and making her sweat beneath the damn hat. The cicadas were loud, but they eventually faded into the background noise of the woods. 

The worn dirt path led steadily uphill, the thick foliage thinning out some the higher they went. At one point they found themselves walking along the side or a drop-off.

While she wouldn’t call it a cliff, the thirty or so feet to the forest floor was fairly steep. From here they could see the lake, peeking out from between the trees.

Greg and Rose had stopped just ahead of them, talking quietly and passing their canteen back and forth. Jaune and Celeste were looking out at the view when Steven scrambled over to them.

“Are you having fun, love?” Celeste smiled down at him as he stopped at their feet.

“Yeah! I can see the lake!” He peered out into the distance, even from here the sun shining off the water made it too bright to look at. 

His eyes were glued to the horizon, looking at everything there was to see and completely unaware of the thin, crumbling area of the ledge he was standing on.

Till the dry ground gave way. 

It was a flurry of movement after.

Being closest to him, Jaune had immediately lunged forward as the boy began to tumble forward over the edge, both arms wrapping around him, but in her rush had overestimated the distance and for a split second found herself careening over the edge. She held the boy tightly to her chest as the world became a dizzy blur of color, sound, and pain. 

Rocks and sticks dug into her skin as they tumbled down the drop, bouncing off the ground several times before eventually rolling to a stop somewhere at the bottom, luckily they had missed all the trees that could have easily killed her had she rolled into them. 

Everything hurt and it took several long moments for her head to right itself enough to realize Steven, still wrapped in her arms, was crying and wailing, but it was still a long minute before she got all her knocked out breath back and could find the strength to move. 

She carefully pushed herself up, letting Steven out of her grip, but he stayed where he was, crying, but at the very least, very much alive. Nothing seemed to be broken, or at least didn’t feel broken. She flexed her arms and fingers, carefully pushing herself up onto her knees, gently testing her back and legs. Something warm and wet was running down her forehead into her left eye. She reached up and felt the liquid dripping from her brow and sure enough, her fingers came back coated in blood. 

She must have hit her head on a rock on the way down, it also explained the headache that was beginning to roar to life, drowning out all the other aches and pains in her body.

It was also only now that she was becoming aware of the screaming from up on the ridge.

She couldn’t see them through the canopy of leaves they had rolled beneath but could hear them just fine.

“Steven!” 

“Jaune!” 

“W-we’re okay!” She yelled back up and the yells stopped for a second.

“We’re coming!” Greg’s voice bellowed and then the distant sound of running before it all went quiet.

It had taken them about half an hour to hike to where they had been, so even running it would take at least half that to go back down the path and around to where they were, she wiped away the blood still dripping into her face away with the back of her sleeve and turned to the boy, still laying in the dirt, crying. 

“Steven, does anything hurt?” She very carefully helped the crying boy sit up, she’d held him tight against her but that didn’t mean nothing was broken, no doubt her weight had pressed fully against him at least a couple of times in the tumble down the ridge.

He nodded through his tears.

“What hurts?” she grunted, wiping the blood dripping into her eye from her forehead away again before pressing her sleeved arm against it to help staunch the blood flow. 

“M-My ankle,” he sobbed, holding his right ankle. 

“You have to let me see.” She gently pulled his hand away and moved her fingers over the skin. It didn’t seem to be broken but a bruise was starting to form; probably sprained. 

“Can you walk?” 

Sniffling and with fat tears running down his face he tried to stand but the moment he put weight on his right ankle he crumpled, wailing.

“Hey, it’s okay,” she said gently, trying to soothe his tears. 

“Momma!” He wailed, holding his ankle and gulping in large lungfuls of air, hiccuping between cries. 

More blood dripped into her eye and she growled under her breath before quickly undoing the buttons on her plaid shirt and pulled it off, leaving her in the blank tank top. 

She managed to rip off one sleeve and tie it tightly around her head, hopefully staunching the majority of the blood flow, at least for long enough that she could get something done!

She ripped off the other and carefully tied it around the boy's ankle while he cried. A temporary fix but better than nothing, anything to put pressure on it. She shrugged the now plaid vest onto her shoulders, she might need more fabric from it later. 

She sighed, it would take less time to get back to camp if she could meet the others halfway. 

She was going to have to carry him.

“Come on, Steven.” She helped maneuver him onto her shoulders, careful of his ankle.

He’d stopped wailing but was still sniffling, tears rolling down his round cheeks.

“I want momma…,” he hiccupped. 

“I know, we’re going to go find them, okay?” She grunted as she stood, balancing the thankfully small for his age boy, and carefully started picking her way through the brush and undergrowth back the way they had come. 

It was hot and humid down in the thick of the woods, top that off with the blood still slowly soaking through the fabric tied around her forehead and the sneaking suspicion that she had a concussion and Jaune had decided.

She really hated camping. 

Steven sat quietly on her shoulders, hands loosely fisted into her hair, and occasionally sniffling.

“We’ll be there soon,” she gently assured him.

Luckily that was true, as a few minutes later she could hear the sounds of frantic running through the grass, along with heavy breathing

She rounded a bend and could see Greg, Rose, and Celeste running toward them.

“Steven!” The man yelled over his panting. 

He slid to a stop in front of her and carefully removed the boy from her shoulders and held him in a crushing embrace which Rose quickly joined, both with tears in their eyes. 

Seeing Steven safe in his parents grasp, Celeste hurried over to her, also on the verge of tears. She looked like she wanted to wrap her arms around the blonde, but restrained herself, not knowing how injured she might be. 

“You’re covered in blood!” Blue eyes were blown wide as she took in what Jaune assumed must be a rather grisly looking scene.

“I hit some rocks, I think. How bad is it?” 

She reached up and gently held the blonde’s face and hesitated a second before pulling up the material to look at the cut and winced, it tried to stick. 

“It doesn’t look... terribly deep…” She bit her lip, pressing the fabric back down gently. It at least didn’t seem to be bleeding much anymore. Jaune nodded. 

“I think he has a sprained ankle...” She nodded to Steven. Her head was killing her and she was so tied. “...and I think I have a concussion,” she rumbled, closing her eyes. The sunlight was killing her head and her burned face. 

“We gotta go,” Greg said upon hearing this, moving Steven to his shoulders and they moved quickly back toward camp. 

Celeste stayed close to her side, watching her worriedly and holding her arm when she stumbled a little over the thick underbrush. 

It only took about fifteen minutes to get back to camp but it felt like so much longer as her head throbbed with every beat of her heart.

“Get in the van.” Greg handed their son to Rose and opened the back doors. 

“What about all our gear?” Rose looked at him as she held Steven.

“I’ll come back for it another day, we need to get Jaune to the hospital and have Steven checked out.” 

Jaune and Celeste climbed into the back while Rose hopped into the front passenger seat with Steven still curled up in her arms, his face buried in her neck. 

The tires spun when Greg punched it. The dirt road jerked them around a little as he sped back toward town

“Are you hurt anywhere else?” Celeste asked her quietly as she used an antiseptic wipe from the first aid kit on the many tiny cuts on the blonde’s arms and face she hadn’t even noticed. Thankfully she’d been wearing jeans. 

“I don’t think so…,” she mumbled, her eyes sliding closed but not five seconds after they did, Celeste was shaking her.

“Jaune, I know you’re tired, but you need to keep your eyes open, you can’t go to sleep yet, darling.” 

“I know,” she grunted, eyes opening, but still trying to fall shut. Rose watched them over her shoulder and Greg frowned, glancing at them in the rearview mirror. 

Once her cuts were cleaned, Celeste sat next to her, holding her hand and keeping her awake till they got to the hospital.

~ ~ ~ 

It was getting dark when they got back to the bakery after Steven had been released with a small sprain hours before and Jaune, who they had wanted to watch for a few hours and did indeed have a concussion though thankfully, by a miracle, a minor one.

“I’m going to take Jaune home.” Celeste told Rose as they walked through the bakery, they could see the blonde outside, leaning against her car, arms crossed and frowning, waiting on Celeste. Several butterfly bandages holding the cut on her forehead closed and honestly, looking like a ragged, bloody mess in her torn jeans and plaid, blood-stained, now vest. “I don’t want to leave her alone, as least for tonight.” 

“That sounds like a good idea… but, before you go… I gotta talk to her,” Rose said.

“Right now? She’s really not…,” Celeste started, only for Rose to cut her off.

“Right now,” she insisted, walking out the lobby doors with her older sister on her heels.

“Jaune,” she called, approaching the blonde, who looked up, both brows rising in silent question upon seeing the school teacher approach.

Instead of stopping Rose walked straight into the lawyer, wrapping her arms around her waist and squeezing.

If she hadn’t been so shocked, Celeste would have found the wide-eyed look on her girlfriends face quite comical.

“Thank you,” Rose said, squeezing the blonde even harder for a brief moment, mindful of her injuries “Thank you so much.”

Before she could think of anything to say, Rose let go, stepping back and wiping at her eyes. “

“I’ll see you both later,” she said before turning and walking back inside.

Jaune looked at her and she shrugged, but was smiling.

“It probably would have been so much worse then a sprained ankle if you hadn’t been holding onto him so tightly. You probably saved his life.” 

“It was just instinct…” Jaune shrugged, looking away. There hadn’t even been any conscious thought to it. She’d seen him falling and she’d reacted. 

“We’re all still very grateful.” Celeste insisted. “Come on, let’s get you home,” she said, climbing into the driver’s seat of Jaune’s car. 

The five minute trip was spent in relative quiet and Jaune headed straight for the shower the second she walked into the house and Celeste waited in the living room for her.

When she finally came back out, her damp hair was combed back and the dried blood on her face was washed away. She was wearing fresh, clean clothes and looked far better then she had twenty minutes beforehand.

“Feel better?”

“Immensely” Jaune sighed, plopping down onto the sofa beside her and leaned her head on the baker's shoulder. They sat there in companionable silence for a few minutes before Celeste couldn’t help herself.

“I’m sorry I made you go with us.” 

Amber eyes popped open and she sat up to better look at Celeste.

“You didn’t make me do anything,” she started. “I chose to go.” 

“But I know you didn’t want to…, I could tell you weren’t exactly having a good time even before you fell off the trail,” Celeste countered, frowning. 

Jaune frowned, lips pursed, before finally sighing.

“No, I didn’t. I’m not an outdoor person, I never have been.” She shrugged.

“Then why did you agree to come?” She turned to better face Jaune. 

“I just wanted to spend time with you and make you happy,” she finally said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world and Celeste supposed it was. 

Cobalt stared into amber for a long moment before she leaned forward, her forehead gently pressed to Jaune’s, mindful of her cut and sighed. 

“I do appreciate it, Jaune, really I do, but please, darling, next time, just tell me, alright? You're not as much fun when you're sunburned and grumpy.” She chuckled. 

“Right” Jaune smirked, eyes closing and body sagging. 

“Tired?” 

She hummed an affirmative. Exhausted was a better word, and she still had a headache, though not as pounding as it had been. 

“Come on then, let’s get you to bed.” She stood up and held out her hand. 

Jaune took it and let Celeste lead her down the hall to her own bedroom, hitting the lights as they went.

She all but fell into the bed, glad it wasn’t a tent.

She could hear Celeste chuckle to herself as she flicked off the bedroom light and climbed in behind her, arm wrapping around her waist. 

Lips pressed softly against the back of her neck, followed by a quiet, breathy goodnight. 

She mumbled the sentiment in turn, hand finding the one slung over her waist and gave it a brief squeeze before finally getting to close her eyes and let the sleep she had been fighting off for hours finally take her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a while, been trying to work on some other stuff too.


	14. Chapter 14

Jaune!”

Jaune blearily looked up from the coffee pot that was taking much too long to make her drink as Celeste poked her head into the kitchen, a towel wrapped around her body and hair.

“Did I leave my blue and white striped blouse here?” she asked. The blonde wracked her sleep-addled brain for a few seconds. 

“I washed it and put it in your drawer…,” she grumbled groggily before a yawn forced its way out of her mouth. When she opened her eyes again her girlfriend had vanished back down the hall toward the bedroom. 

“Found it!” echoed out of the room a minute later and Jaune snorted as she filled her mug to the brim with dark caffeinated goodness. 

After very nearly six months of dating, Celeste spent more nights here then she did in her own apartment, and while Jaune was more than happy with that, she didn’t think she was ever going to get used to waking up at four in the morning; usually about the time Celeste was finishing her shower and getting dressed. She always managed to get out of bed and shower without waking the lawyer but Jaune’s internal alarm had ended up resetting itself and she always woke up now, just as Celeste was finishing getting ready to head back to the bakery.

She had halfway drained her mug when Celeste appeared again, dried, dressed, and bag slung over her shoulder. She leaned down and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“Thank you. Have a good day, I’ll see you tonight,” she said quietly, well aware that Jaune was only just barely coherent. 

The blonde made a noise of agreement and Celeste smiled before heading out. 

Jaune spent the next hour waking up and getting ready for work herself. As she moved around the house there were bits and pieces that hinted at the newer secondary occupant. 

She took note of Celeste’s various hair and bath products that now took up what had become her designated side of the shower as she showered for work and on the bathroom sink when she stepped out. 

The second to the top drawer of her dresser, which before had housed a few odds and ends were now full of Celeste’s clothes so she would have something to change into when she came back from work, or if they went out on the weekend.

The charger for her laptop was sitting on the bedside table on what was now her side of the bed.

Except for the occasional night she was just too tired to drive back or she had to stay in the bakery till late, she had all but moved in with her.

Something Jaune had been thinking a lot about the last few days.

She had been heavily considering just asking Celeste to actually move in, she was certainly here enough that she might as well, but there was a certain difference in just coming here all the time and actually committing to living here full time, and she wasn’t the least bit sure how Celeste would feel about moving out of her apartment and into her house. The only way to know for sure was of course to ask her.

She supposed tonight would be as good a time as any.

She was fairly confident Celeste would say yes, but that didn’t stop the little nagging thought that sat in the back of her mind the rest of the day that her girlfriend might say no to the prospect.

While she couldn’t get much closer to work than living on the floor above it, she had been staying at her place during the week anyway, and it was only a five-minute drive even with moderate traffic.

Jaune was distracted the majority of the day, attempting to work on the case files sitting in front of her and trying not to think about what Celeste might say tonight; she was failing.

At lunchtime, she pulled out the sandwich Celeste had made for her and was halfway through eating when her phone buzzed.

She took another bite as she picked it up, flicking her thumb over the lock screen to see an image message from Rose.

She cocked a brow at that as she chewed. Rose would text or call her on occasion, usually when she couldn’t get a hold of her sister but it was the middle of the afternoon on a Friday.

She tapped the message and choked on the bite in her mouth.

~ ~ ~

“It’s a cake… it’s business…” Celeste told herself as she moved the large cake around on it’s spinning base, as she finished with the base coat of frosting. If she wasn’t being paid so handsomely for this there was no way she would have ever agreed to do it.

She was just glad that there was no one around to see the thing and she should be done with it in another hour or so and then it would be gone and she could forget about it.

“What. Is. That?” Rose punctuated each word as she walked into the bakery’s kitchen to see her sister working on a large, standing cake.

Celeste sighed, shoulders dropping at the sound of her sister’s voice as she piped pink icing onto the crumb frosted cake.

“It’s a cake…,” was all she said, not looking up from her work, shoulders tense, and face scrunched up as she tried to concentrate and not look at her sister’s face. She knew what was coming without looking.

“It‘s a giant dick!” Rose barked before breaking into hysterical laughter. 

Celeste sighed again, stopping to look at her sister.

“I know what it is,” she huffed, hands on her hips.

“I’m surprised…” Rose snickered once she got her breath back and walked up to the large phallic-shaped baked good while Celeste sent her a dirty look. “Did you need a reference photo?” she teased.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Celeste snapped, face a bright red.

“Not right now…” Her sister grinned at her before, noticing her lack of answer, turning to look at the three-foot-tall cake. “Why?” she finally couldn’t help but ask. 

“It’s for a bachelorette party… and they paid more than I would have charged when I initially refused…” she explained the monstrosity sitting on her counter.

“Well… it’s certainly… lifelike… I mean, not in size obviously,” she giggled.

“You’re a child…” Celeste grumbled as she set down the pastry bag and started putting together the airbrush for the fine details. Rose stuck out her tongue. “My point exactly…” she mumbled.

She ignored her sister and set to working on the last things the cake needed before she could get the thing the hell out of her kitchen. Even if it was… well, what it was, she had agreed to do it, so it would get just as much attention as anything else she made. She was fully concentrated on the cake when she heard the telltale sound of a phone camera. Her head snapped up to find Rose holding up her phone and grinning as she tapped a few buttons.

“Delete that!” Celeste growled, turning around fully to face her sister.

Rose blinked before turning and bolting out of the kitchen.

“Rose!” the baker roared, giving chase.

~ ~ ~

Jaune heard the front door open and looked up from the boiling pot of noodles as she heard the sound of steps on the wood floor before Celeste rounded the corner into the kitchen. 

She looked tired, but the moment her eyes landed on the blonde they lit up, and Jaune couldn’t help but smile. There was something incredibly satisfying about being the reason her face lit up like that. Every time, without fail, it caused warmth to spread through her own chest. 

“You look tired,” she observed just before the baker wrapped her arms around her waist and buried her face in the junction of her neck and shoulder and groaned, making Jaune chuckle as she wrapped her arms around Celeste. She mumbled something into the fabric on her shoulder.

“You’ll have to repeat that…”

With a sigh, Celeste lifted her face out of Jaune’s neck.

“I am tired… Halloween is in five days, there were a lot of orders for parties that I have to get finished up, and Rose was being a particular pain today…,” she grumbled, thinking of the five minutes she had chased her nearly twenty-nine-year-old sister around the building before tackling her and forcefully deleting the photo of her leaned over the giant cake.

“It didn’t have anything to with the giant penis cake did it?” she asked, unable to stop herself from grinning as Celeste’s head whipped up to look at her, eyes wide.

“You saw that?!” she gave the blonde a gentle shove as she started laughing, pulling out her phone and showing Celeste the picture Rose had sent. Celeste snatched the phone.

“I was eating lunch when I got that and literally almost choked to death,” she informed her as she looked at the picture on her screen with a frown, brows drawn between her eyes.

“Should I be jealous?” She couldn’t help the shit-eating grin plastered on her face as Celeste looked back up at her sharply, face bright red.

“You and Rose both are the worst.” She hit a few buttons, deleting the photo before shoving the phone back into Jaune’s chest and turning on her heel. Before she could take more than two steps a pair of arms wrapped around her waist and her back was pulled flush against Jaune’s chest. 

“I’m sorry, I’m only teasing,” she said, holding tight, though Celeste wasn’t attempting to break free.

She was frowning, not saying anything before she finally sighed.

“I know, I know...I’m just… tired,” she grumbled, going limp in Jaune’s grip and leaning her head back against her shoulder. “I’ve had a lot of special orders to work on, Rose has been a pain… and I can never find anything because I don’t know if it’s here or at my apartment!” she vented, throwing up her hands.

Jaune blinked at that, this was probably as good of an opportunity as she was going to get.

“Well, I know how you can solve one of those problems,” she said and Celeste hummed, showing that she was listening. “You could just completely move in with me.” 

Celeste stiffened in her grip and Jaune couldn’t help but do so as well.

Celeste wiggled Jaune’s grip loose enough to turn in her arms and look up at the blonde.

“Move in here with you, permanently?” her bright cobalt eyes were blown wide but Jaune couldn’t begin to decipher the look on her face and plowed ahead with her prepared argument.

“Yes.” she nodded. “I know living above the bakery is more convenient, but you’re hardly ever there as it is and it’s a lot more space here, and I know how much you love the kitchen…,” she would have rambled on had Celeste not reached up, laying a hand on her shoulder, instantly silencing her. She was smiling so warmly at her that Jaune swore she could feel it.

“I do love the kitchen,” she admitted. “But do you know what I love more?” she asked with a tilt of her head. 

Before she could even think to answer Celeste was standing up on her toes to press a kiss to her lips. 

Jaune could smell the sugary icing and scent of fresh-baked bread that always seemed to follow the other woman around, especially when she first came back from work. 

She released the blonde’s lips, settling back onto her heels.

“I love you,” she finally said, looking up into wide, amber eyes. She couldn’t blame Jaune though, this was the first time she had ever expressed that sentiment aloud, though she had been thinking it a lot in recent weeks. She just couldn’t not say it now, looking up this woman who had completely stolen her heart. 

The loose grip around her waist tightened, pulling her flush against Jaune and suddenly into a long, nearly bruising kiss that made her clutch the back of the white, cotton, button-down she was wearing and left her breathless when she finally released her.

“I love you too.” the lawyer breathed and Celeste squeezed her back, burying her face back in the side of her neck while Jaune’s fingers slid through her hair. 

“So…?” Jaune finally asked after several long moments, prompting Celeste to laugh against her skin before pulling back to look up at her.

“Yes, Jaune, I’ll move in with you.” She smiled, her eyes darting over the blonde’s shoulder. “Provided you don’t burn the house down…,” she grinned. Jaune whipped around to see the pot of pasta boiling over and starting to smoke.

“Shit!” Jaune ran over to the stove, Celeste watching with a grin behind her hand.


	15. chapter 15

“I’ve been thinking…” Celeste finally started as she picked at the remains of the food on her plate, prompting her sister to look up at her. 

It was Saturday afternoon and they were sitting in the middle of a crowded restaurant having lunch. This was the first time the sisters had had a quiet moment alone together in weeks. 

Between work, their partners, and in Rose’s case, son, there hadn’t been a single quiet moment in weeks for the sisters to get together and while it took a few pulled strings they had made it happen finally.

Celeste had been rather insistent that they have lunch today and Rose had been waiting for her to finally speak up about whatever it was that was obviously weighing on her older sister’s mind. 

“Finally,” Rose threw up a hand. “I’ve been waiting for you to tell me whatever it is you’ve been so twitchy about ever since we got here.”

“Am I that transparent?” she asked, setting down her fork and focussing her attention on her companion.

“I just know you.” Rose gave a shrug. “So, what is it?” she asked, leaning forward with a curious tilt of her head. 

“It’s about Jaune and I…,” she started after taking a deep breath.

“Oh no, are you breaking up?” The teacher frowned, sitting up straight in her chair and cutting off anything else the baker might have been about to say. 

“What? No.” Celeste waved a hand. “We’re not breaking up,” she assured. 

“Don’t scare me like that,” Rose huffed, slumping back in her seat. “So, what then?” 

‘If you’d let me finish…” Celeste huffed, rolling her eyes and ignoring her sister’s _‘go on then’_ motion of her hand. “Jaune and I have been together over a year now and living together for six months and I think…, no, I’m sure, that I want to take our relationship further…,” she finished, twisting her fingers into the cloth napkin sitting in her lap. 

Rose narrowed her eyes, looking hard at the older woman.

“Like… anal?” she blinked, cocking her head and prompting her sister to jerk and turn red as a fire hydrant.

“NO!” She nearly yelled but her voice quickly lowered to a hush as she looked around at the crowded tables, people giving her annoyed side-eyes. 

“Not… that,” she hissed through clenched teeth and leaning forward to glare at her sister though the effect was lost to the burning red skin that stretched all the way from her neck to the roots of her hair. 

“Okay, okay, relax.” Rose chuckled, holding up her hands as if to contain Celeste’s impending explosion. 

“You live together, what’s le…” She stopped, eyes blowing wide as she stared back at Celeste who looked more nervous than before as the red faded from her face. “Oh my god!” She suddenly screeched, drawing the gaze of everyone in the restaurant and the color returned to Celeste’s face two fold.

“Rose!” She hissed.

“Are you going to ask Jaune to marry you!?” She ignored the warning call of her name and slapped her hands against her cheeks, though it did nothing to temper the manic grin plastered across her face. 

“Yes… I want to ask her... I realize it’s a big step but I’ve never been more sure about someone before.” She couldn’t help but smile to herself as she thought about the surly lawyer. She winced, broken from her thoughts by the sound of Rose squealing again.

“I’m so excited for you!” She bounced excitedly in her seat. “I love weddings.” Rose grinned.

“I haven’t even asked her yet,” Celeste smirked at her sister’s boundless enthusiasm. 

“Maybe, but come on, it’s Jaune. Anyone with eyes can see how head over heels in love with you she is.” Rose huffed, resting her arms on the table and rolling her eyes at the ridiculousness of the idea that the blonde would say no to Celeste’s proposal and she could tell that her sister already knew this by the ever so slight tilt of her lips. 

“Be that as it may, nothing is set in stone yet. Speaking of though, I was hoping you would come with me this afternoon to look at a few rings?”

“Yes!” Rose was agreeing before Celeste could even properly finish the question. 

They quickly paid for their meals before Rose was practically pulling her down the street to the nearest jewelry shop she knew of.

"So, is there anything, in particular, you're looking for?" Rose asked over her shoulder as she peered into the glass cases at the bright, sparkling array of metals and gemstones.

"I'm not really sure… other than her collection of wristwatches and the pin her father gave her, Jaune doesn't really wear much jewelry." Celeste pursed her lips and she peered into the displays. There was no shortage of options to be sure, it was a little overwhelming, to be honest. All different kinds of metals and stone in all different shapes, sizes and colors. 

"Ooh…what about this one?" Rose pressed a finger to the glass, despite the clear sign that asked that patrons not do that.

"Which one?" Celeste peered over her sister's curly head of hair. 

"That one on the far left, second row." She jabbed at the glass for emphasis, drawing the eye to a large gaudy ring with far too busy a pattern of tiny gemstones on a yellow gold band. 

She couldn't for the life of her see Jaune wearing the ring.

"Rose… it's ugly…," she finally said before moving down the row of glass and peering into each one briefly and ignoring her sister disgruntled noises.

“I like it,” she grumbled under her breath and followed the elder down the rows. Celeste just rolled her eyes at the teacher’s pouting. 

“Jaune has a very simple and elegant style.” She said as she peered at the jewelry in front of her. Rose snorted.

“She’d accept if you proposed with the tab off a coke can.” 

“She might very well accept if I asked her with it but she wouldn’t like it, and that’s what matters.” Celeste insisted as they continued to look through the store's offerings. 

“What do you think of this one?” Celeste asked, gesturing to a ring that Rose would definitely say fit the ‘simple’ aspect of Jaune’s requirements. It was a plain gold band with three, round center stones. 

“I think I’m glad I’m here to talk you out of it,” she deadpanned. Celeste made a sour face.

“I’m starting to regret asking you to come along at all,” She sniffed, glaring. 

“Oh yea…?” Rose started, but was cut off before she could finish the thought. 

“Ladies, ladies, I’m sure we can find something that will bring you both a lifetime of happiness.” a sales associate quickly stepped in to interrupt their bickering.

“She’s just so difficult sometimes,” Rose sighed loudly with a dramatic flip of her head before Celeste could open her mouth to correct the man. She glared at Rose before turning back to the man.

“We are not a couple…” She informed him. 

“You’re no fun.” Rose folded her arms and huffed under her breath. Celeste ignored her, trying her hardest not to roll her eyes. 

“My apologies, ladies. Can I help you find something?” He asked. 

“Yes, I’m looking for an engagement ring for my girlfriend. Simple and elegant.” 

“Boring” Rose coughed under her breath and Celeste inhaled deeply but didn’t turn around to look at Rose.

The man hummed and walked over to a case they hadn’t gotten to yet.

“I think these might be closer to what you’re looking for.” He gestured to the pieces inside the glass. 

There were a number of bracelets and necklaces arranged on racks, but sitting on the bottom-most shelf was a row of rings much closer to what Celeste had envisioned. 

They were all beautiful in a simple and clean way but one stuck out to her immediately. 

“Can I see this one?” She tapped lightly on the glass and he seemed to know which one she meant as he unlocked the case and pulled out the ring in question. Rose peaked over her shoulder.

“Oh!”

It was a simple white-gold band with a bright yellow, radiant cut, solitaire diamond sitting prominently atop it. 

“This piece is three-fourths a carat with a vivid yellow solitaire…” He rattled off a few other numbers about cut and clarity but Celeste wasn’t really listening anymore. She could perfectly imagine Jaune wearing this ring.

The lawyer’s favorite color was yellow after all. 

“It’s perfect,” she mumbled, more to herself than anything, though Rose seemed to hear the quiet proclamation.

“It’s pretty,” she agreed.

Celeste flipped over the tiny tag attached and pursed her lips.

“Yikes…” Rose guffawed, also getting a look at the numbers.

“it... is a bit more than I wanted to spend..but…” she hummed, prompting Rose’s head to whip toward her.

“A bit?” she questioned. “Are we looking at the same numbers?” she asked, even as she looked at Celeste’s face and knew that she wasn’t going to be swayed from this ring. “Do you do payment plans?” She asked the smiling man behind the display.

~ ~ ~ 

Celeste hummed happily to herself as she walked into the house later that evening with her purchase tucked away safely in her bag. She’d need to find a good place to hide it for the time being. 

She’d been thinking about how and when would be a good time to ask Jaune ever since she and Rose had left the store.

Her sister had been full of grand and romantic suggestions and as much as she enjoyed those ideas, she knew Jaune and knew how easily embarrassed and flustered she was by public displays of affection, so as amusing as the idea of putting it on a billboard was, the lawyer would have a stroke. 

No, something simple and private. She didn’t fancy the idea of making a big to do out of it either, much as she enjoyed the idea of such grand gestures. 

She would have to think about it, it would take some planning to get the two of their schedules cleared at the same time, and Jaune had a tendency to work too much at home as well. Unless she was in the middle of an important case she sometimes hid the blonde’s laptop after seven in the evening and would set it back out when she got up at three. 

Speaking of…

The goldenrod Mercedes had been in the driveway and the living room lights were on but the room was empty, meaning Jaune was probably in her office. She moved quietly down the dark hall toward the door in question that was sitting ajar, letting pale light spill out into the hall. 

She peeked through the crack. The main light was turned off but the lamp on her desk was turned on, casting a dim light in the room, allowing her to see the blonde hunched over her laptop, fingers flying across the keys at a rapid pace and a frown maring her lover’s face, not that there was anything so unusual about that. Anytime Jaune was working on her computer on having a business call she was usually frowning, if not outright scowling. 

One thing that was out of place was the soft music that filtered through the room from the laptop. 

Musical soundtracks. 

Jaune, much to her surprise, and everyone else's as well, was a theatre buff of incredible proportions and her near entire music collection consisted of various original musical soundtracks

She was so engrossed in her work that she didn’t notice Celeste slip in through the door or slink quietly around the room till she was standing behind the hunched over form of the blonde. She leaned down till her lips were just beside Jaune’s ear.

“Busy?” she breathed.

“God!” Jaune yelped, nearly coming out of the chair while Celeste burst into laughter. “Where did you come from?” she gasped, a hand pressed to her chest as she swiveled around to face the giggling baker.

“I just got back from having lunch with my sister.” She said as she leaned down to kiss the startled lawyers cheek. 

“That was a very long lunch,” Jaune hummed as she glanced at the clock and saw the time, hell, it was nearly dinner time.

“She insisted on dragging me around to shop with her for a while.” Celeste lied easily, having planned her excuses well in advance for the extra long outing. 

Jaune hummed in acknowledgment, that sounded like Rose. 

“What are you working on?” Celeste peered at the open files on the laptop but all the legal jargon just blurred together in her eyes. 

Jaune grunted as she swiveled back around to the desk.

“I’m just going over this deposition for court next friday.” She grumbled as she stated scrolling through the document again and immediately her shoulders were bunched back up around her ears.

Celeste clicked her tongue in obvious disapproval. It was Sunday and as much as Jaune would protest this could wait till tomorrow morning, that was what her office hours were for. 

Positioning herself directly behind the chair, she dug her fingers into the blondes' tensed up shoulders and kneaded the tight muscles. Jaune made a sound in her throat that made the baker smirk.

“Can this not wait until tomorrow, it’s Sunday.” she reminded, working on a particularly tough knot in the left side of the blonde’s neck. 

“I just want to give it a cursory look and make some notes about things I’ll need to look at more in depth later…” she said, but her rapid scrolling of the document had slowed.

“I know, but I know you’ve probably been sitting here for hours already…” Celeste said knowingly, digging her thumbs a little harder into the taut, corded muscle of Jaune’s shoulders, eliciting a low gutteral noise from her.

“You need a break.” She said as she slowly, but surely got those bunched up shoulders to lower back down. Her scrolling stalled as she leaned back toward the bakers expert, kneading hands, eyes sliding closed and Celeste smiled victoriously to herself.

If she’d learned anything over the last year, it was that Jaune worked entirely too hard. She’d thought herself to be a bit of a micromanager but now realized that in comparison to her girlfriend she was just fine at doling out tasks for others. 

“Feel better?” She asked after a few minutes. The wordless, throaty noise Jaune made was answer enough. “Take a break now?” 

“Alright, alright…” Jaune breathed as she leaned forward, pulling out of Celeste’s grip to stand, stretching briefly as she stepped around the chair and snatched Celeste up in her arms, making her yelp in surprise but it quickly turned into quiet laughter as she let the blonde pull her in close and set her chin on top of her head. 

“Happy now?” She asked, squeezing the baker closer for good measure. 

“Yes,” Celeste mumbled, eyes closed and tucking her face further against the lawyer’s neck, she could smell the faint scent of the citrus soap she liked to use on her skin.

They stayed there, quietly swaying to the low playing music still filtering out of the computer into the room. 

Seering affection for the woman wrapped around her filled Celeste’s chest with a burning heat that made her squeeze harder. 

Jaune huffed, the low, amused way she often did and all Celeste could suddenly think about was the ring, hidden in her bag on the kitchen counter. 

“I love you.” Jaune mumbled, moving to lay a kiss against platinum locks

“Marry me.” She suddenly blurted out and she felt Jaune go still in her arms.

“What?” She pulled back to stare down at her with wide amber eyes, like she couldn't have heard what she thought she had. 

Celeste’s mouth opened to say something, but words refused to leave her lips as she looked up at Jaune, staring back at her with a shocked look that surely mirrored her own. 

“What did you just say?” Jaune asked, still blinking down at her owlishly. 

“I… wait... wait here!” She managed to shake herself out of her stupor as she pulled herself out of Jaune’s grip and took a step back toward the door.

“Celeste...” Jaune stepped forward, brows furrowed worriedly between her eyes, but Celeste held up her hands, stopping her advance.

“Please, just… stay here,” she pleaded.

Jaune frowned but took a step back. 

Celeste dashed down the hall and into the kitchen, frantically digging though her bag till her fingers wrapped around the box she was looking for and quickly ran back to Jaune’s office.

The blonde was standing just where she had left her, looking just as confused as ever, she looked up as Celeste came back in, box clutched tightly in her hands and dark blonde brows shot up into her hair. 

Celeste stopped in front of her and took a deep breath, suddenly so much more nervous now that Jaune was looking at her with those wide amber eyes. 

“I said…,” she started, running her tongue over suddenly dry lips as she popped open the box. “Marry me” 

Jaune blinked, wide eyed and speechless at the ring glinting back at her in the low light of the office. Her eyes drew back up to Celeste as she spoke. 

“I know this is sudden… and I didn’t mean for it to happen this way… but I’ve never been as sure of something as I am of this, of us. Jaune, will you marry me?” 

~ ~ ~

Rose was standing in the kitchen cooking dinner when her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled out the device to see a text from her sister.

She flicked it open and read the brief message typed in all caps before she dropped the spatula she’d been holding and screeched.

A few seconds later Greg bolted into the kitchen.

“What, what’s wrong!?” He asked, looking around frantically for the cause of his wife’s scream just before she threw herself into his arms.

“She said YES!” the teacher squealed loudly.


	16. Chapter 16

“You realize this is going to be a very tedious dinner, don’t you?” Jaune asked as they drove through the winding countryside to her mother’s house. After Jaune had called her to break the news of their engagement Monday morning she had insisted that Saturday night they came over for dinner.

“You say that about every dinner with your mother.” Celeste smiled, glancing at Jaune out of the corner of her eye as she touched up her makeup in the mirror. 

“Well… it’s true.” the blond mumbled as they turned onto the long drive leading up to her childhood home. Her mother was a master of theatrics and never shied away from laying it on as thick as possible for any given occasion; it could be quite tiresome at times.

“Did she at least… sound happy when you talked to her?” Celeste asked hesitantly, her fussing in the mirror stopped to look uncertainly at her fiance. 

“What? Of course,” Jaune turned to look at her with wide eyes. “She was ecstatic, my mother adores you.” She reached over with her right hand and threaded her fingers between Celeste’s. 

“It’s hard for me to tell what your mother thinks of anything…,” she admitted, causing Jaune to snort.

“I know; she is the living embodiment of ‘all the world’s a stage’.” she rolled her eyes, but smirked as Celeste giggled. “It should be fairly tame with just the three of us tonight; she rarely tries to put on a show with me.” Jaune comforted, squeezing the hand in hers. 

“Just the three of us?” Celeste asked, looking up at the house. Turning back to look at the house it took everything in Jaune not to slam her head into the steering wheel.

The front of the house was crammed with cars, filling every empty bit of yard in front of the giant house. 

“Seems we weren’t the only ones she invited to dinner,” Celeste observed, looking at all the cars

“So it would seem…” Jaune pursed her lips as she looked at the cars, a few she recognized, family friends, others she didn’t. Tension was already building up behind her eyes. She had a very good idea already of what was going on. 

She put the car in park and sighed as she looked up at the house for a long quiet moment with a frown.

“We’re going to have to go in eventually,” Celeste said quietly after a couple of minutes, squeezing the hand still wrapped in hers. She could see the tension rising in her shoulders by the way Jaune was hunching over and gripping the steering wheel.

This may not be as quiet an evening as she had hoped.

“Alright…” Jaune mumbled to herself as she pulled the keys out of the ignition and climbed out of the car. Celeste followed quickly. 

They could hear the rumbling din of the party going on inside before they even opened the door, which only amplified the sound as Jaune let them in and followed the noise down the hall to the main living room.

The room was packed with people, all milling about and sipping on drinks and picking at a large table of food as they chatted. 

“I think everyone I’ve ever met is here…” Jaune mumbled as she looked out over the room of people, all dressed for a party that neither of them had been aware of. 

Celeste already seemed to be picking up on this as she fussed with her simple, sky blue, cotton dress, which made Jaune frown. 

“You look beautiful...,” she said quietly. The baker smiled up at her, though Jaune knew her well enough to see the uncertainty in her face; this only further prickled the anger that was beginning to rise at this situation her mother had thrust them into. 

Now she just had to find her mother...

They started moving through the crowd, only to be stopped every few seconds by someone wanting to congratulate them. 

Yes, her mother had apparently decided to throw an engagement party for them against their will…

“This is an engagement party…” She finally grumbled after they had managed to break away from the fourth person she didn’t even know, congratulating them. 

“It certainly seems that way.” Celeste agreed, hooking her arm through Jaune’s as she led them through the room of people. 

When she had talked to her mother on Monday she had been subtly (as subtly as Blanche Roche did anything) asking about if they were having an engagement party. She’d told her no, that they didn’t want to throw a party. 

Somehow her mother had interpreted that as that she had to throw the party for them. 

A loud, sharp, and airy laugh made her turn and she immediately spotted her mother across the room speaking to a man she easily recognized; her uncle.

With a huff, she quickly navigated the room with Celeste, only just managing to not be stopped by any more well-wishing guests.

The blonde man with silver streaks at his temples saw her before her mother did and a large grin broke out across his face, which did temper the smoldering fire that had started to bubble up in her gut.

“Jaune!” The man held up his arms and she couldn’t help but smile before he pulled her into a hug. “It’s so good to see you, congratulations.” He grinned, pulling back to grin at her. “You must be Celeste.” He turned his infectious smile on the baker who couldn’t help but return the look.

“Celeste, this is my uncle Jakob, my father’s brother.” Jaune introduced the older blonde man who shook her hand.

“I can see the similarity.” She said, causing the man to burst into loud laughter and Jaune and Blanche only grinned.

“I should hope so, considering James and I were identical twins.” He laughed and Celeste flushed at that. She had never seen a picture of Jaune’s father, she could however see the similarities between the older man and her fiance, which made sense now. 

They chatted with him for a few moments before he excused himself to get a drink, leaving the couple with Blanche. Jaune immediately turned to her mother, her good humor leaving with her uncle. 

“What is all this?” she hissed quietly, spurring her mother to look at her with wide, surprised eyes. 

“Your engagement party, of course, Sunshine.” She said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“No, I can see that, Mother…” The blonde tried not to growl, but by the way Celeste was now squeezing her arm she wasn’t sure she was succeeding. “Why though?” She asked between clenched teeth.

“Well, why not?” She swirled the wine in her glass. ‘You said you weren’t having one, so I thought I would do you the favor of throwing it,” She explained with an airy wave of her hand at the party. 

“Mother, we weren’t having one because Celeste and I didn’t want to have one, we didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.” She tried to calmly explain but her mother’s flippant attitude about it was not helping her keep control over her quickly rising temper. 

“Who doesn’t want to have an engagement party?” She frowned. “It’s an opportunity to share the good news with everyone.” 

“I don’t know half these people!” Jaune hissed angrily, shoulders bunching up to her ears as she tried to keep herself from shouting in the middle of the crowded living room. 

“Jaune…” Celeste’s low voice and hand on the crook of her elbow reeled her back in some.

“Well, everyone’s all here now, Jaune. You should have said you didn’t want to have the party. Just try to enjoy it.” She said over her shoulder as she disappeared into the crowd, leaving the now seething blonde behind.

“Relax, love.” Celeste rubbed circles against her back as she took long, deep breaths.

“I was right,” she finally grumbled, prompting Celeste to look at her quizically. “This is going to be a tedious evening…” 

“It will be alright,” she promised. “Put on your party face and we’ll grin and bear it together.” 

Jaune sighed but nodded

“Fine,” she reluctantly agreed. If she had her way, they would just leave, but she knew it would reflect badly on them all if they did. 

By the parties’ end, they both had had their fill of socializing for a month. 

“I think that went quite well.” Blanche smiled at both of them after the last of the guests had left.

With a heavy sigh, Jaune pushed herself up off the couch.

“It was exhausting; we’re going home,” she declared, starting for the door with Celeste on her heels. 

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic, Jaune,” Blanche huffed. 

The lawyer stopped dead in her tracks and immediately spun on her heel toward her mother, face set in a snarl and already gearing up for the incoming shouting match before she caught sight of Celeste looking at her worriedly, and as quickly as the fire had sparked to life it was smothered by the tender look in those cobalt eyes she adored so much. 

Instead, she took a deep, staggering breath, letting the heat and tension bleed out of her. 

“I don’t want to talk to you right now,” she simply declared, spinning around and taking Celeste’s hand in hers and stomping out of the house; leaving her mother standing there with her mouth hanging open. 

The drive home was very quiet until they pulled into the driveway and the car shut off, leaving them in quiet. 

Jaune sighed tiredly, slumping back in her seat and closing her eyes.

“I’m proud of you.” Celeste broke the quiet.

Tired amber eyes cracked back open as she rolled her head to look at the other woman looking back at her.

“For what?” a dark blonde brow canted upward.

“You stopped yourself from blowing up at your mother; calmed yourself.” She said. Jaune huffed. 

“Only because you were there,” she mumbled tiredly. “Otherwise I would have,” she grunted, sitting back up in the seat. 

“You still didn’t lose your temper and I’m still proud of you. I know she’s the one person who really knows how to push your buttons.” She reached over and squeezed the blonde’s hand. 

Jaune squeezed them back.

~ ~ ~

Two months

For the last two months, since they had started planning their wedding, every day had been filled with at least one instance of Rose or Blanche calling or texting to bombard them with ideas or suggestions for the venue, the flowers or the food and both of them were exhausted by the whole thing already. 

They had tentatively set a date for six months away, but so far, two months had already felt like six months. 

Jaune had stopped answering the majority of her mother's calls, even after she had somewhat, reluctantly apologized for the impromptu engagement party.

Rose was not so easy to dodge since she lived right above the bakery.

"What do you think about your bachelorette party?" She asked one day, making Celeste pause in her kneading.

"Oh… I don't think I want to do that…," she made a face. "You know I've never been much of a drinker or partier," she shrugged.

"What about strippers?" The teacher suggested and Celeste felt her face heat up.

"No...." She glared at Rose over her shoulder to where the teacher was sitting, perched on the counter.

"Aw, why not? It'd be tasteful," she wheedled, leaning forward, but the wicked grin on her face told Celeste all she needed to know. Rose was the sort that if you gave an inch would take a mile.

“No, no strippers, Rose. If we just have a simple get together will you forget about the strippers?” she sighed tiredly.

“You got it,” Rose grinned, hopping off the counter. “I have plans to make,” she called before running out of the kitchen. 

She shook her head and went back to kneading.

At least Jaune didn’t have to deal with this at work.

~ ~ ~

“I’m only suggesting the country club, Sunshine. You and Celeste haven’t already decided on a venue have you?” Blanche asked from the chair across from Jaune’s desk.

Jaune breathed heavily through her nose and took a long drink from her coffee cup, putting off talking to her mother for as long as possible. 

“No, mother, we haven’t decided on a place yet, but we don’t want to get married in your country club,” she insisted for the second time already, mentally counting down from ten as her mother continued on about various places that she and Celeste could get married. 

She very nearly cried with relief when her lunch hour ended and she needed to head to her next meeting

“We can talk about this later, Mother. I have a meeting to prepare for now.” 

“I’ll call you tonight and we’ll talk about it,” Blanche promised as she stood to leave, though it felt more like a threat to Jaune. 

“Of course.” She nodded, walking the older woman out. 

“Do NOT let my mother back in.” The blonde glared at Daisy after she’d closed the door on her mother. The assistant jumped but nodded briskly, quickly jotting down a note about the older Roche. 

~ ~ ~ 

When Celeste walked in the front door she was surprised to find Jaune laying face down on the couch, unmoving.

“Are you alright?” She hurried over.

“Fine…,” came the low, muffled reply.

“Long day?” She asked, pressing on her shoulder to make her sit up just long enough for her to sit down, letting the lawyer drop her face back down on her lap.

“My mother came by my office and spent my lunch hour trying to convince me that we should get married at the country club,” she grumbled as Celeste ran her fingers through the short flaxen locks. 

“Rose spent the better part of fifteen minutes trying to convince me that I need a bachelorette party and strippers…” She rolled her eyes.

Jaune’s head jerked up at that.

“There’s not going to be any strippers,” she assured with a laugh at the look on Jaune’s face. She grumbled, rolling over onto her back, resting the back of her head atop the baker’s thighs. 

“They’re turning everything into a mess…,” she grumbled, closing her eyes as Celeste continued to card her fingers through her hair. 

She couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment. Blanche and Rose were both very strong personalities that wanted their voices heard and the two sometimes conflicted with each other on top of that. 

Celeste pursed her lips, looking at the exhaustion evident in Jaune’s face by the lines beneath her eyes that had seemed to darken over the last few weeks; exhaustion that she certainly felt as well.

“Why are we doing any of this?” She asked after a long moment, making amber eyes peel back open.

“Any of what?” her brows furrowed into divets between her eyes.

“Any of this wedding stuff…” Those tired amber eyes popped open, suddenly not so tired.

“What?” Jaune sat up, looking at her.

“Relax…,” she held up a hand. “I still want to marry you,” she assured. Jaune seemed to sag in relief. “I just mean… why are we doing all these things that make us unhappy when this is supposed to be for us?” She asked.

“I thought you wanted a traditional wedding?” Jaune frowned. 

“I just want to marry you. I don’t care about the hows…” Celeste said, reaching out and taking hold of the blonde’s left hand with her own. The platinum and tear-shaped, blue diamond ring Jaune had given her clinking quietly against her own.

The blonde pursed her lips in thought for a long moment looking at their linked hands before looking back up at Celeste.

“We could leave right now... get married in Empire city and spend the week there.” She finally suggested.

“You mean… elope?” Celeste asked, shocked at the suggestion from Jaune of all people. 

“Yes, I can’t take my mother trying to micromanage our wedding for one more day and Rose is going to drive you crazy for the next four months.” She stood from the couch, still holding onto Celeste’s hand. “This is supposed to be for us, isn’t it? Then why don’t we forget about everything and everyone else and make it just that?” 

Celeste blinked, wide-eyed at her fiance, waiting for her answer. She bit her lip looking up at those blazing amber eyes that she adored and sudden excitement started to fill her up as she smiled.

“Yes… right now.” She jumped up, grinning brightly, which only made Jaune grin back.

The next hour was a flurry of packing while Jaune made phone calls, first to the airport and a hotel in Empire City, then to Daisy, to have all her meetings and calls moved to next week or pawned onto her junior lawyers she was slowly, with Celeste’s encouragement, learning to delegate things too. 

“We just need to stop by the bakery so I can leave some instructions for Sky and Pearl,” Celeste called as she set her suitcase in the trunk of the car before hurrying around to slide into the passenger seat. “Are you going to call your mother?” She asked as they drove toward the bakery.

Jaune made a face.

“You have to tell her, love.” She pushed, making the lawyer sigh. 

“I’ll call her when we get to the bakery.” She finally acquiesced, though she didn’t look happy about it. 

She pulled up in front of the dark shop and parked.

“I’ll be right back,” she promised, climbing out and quickly letting herself in. The bells over the door jingled.

She quickly set about jotting down some notes and an explanation to her two assistants. A minute later there was a loud thumping in the stairwell and suddenly Greg appeared, waffle iron held overhead.

“Who’s there, don’t make me use this!” His eyes landed on Celeste and he immediately dropped the appliance back to his side. “Oh, Celeste, what are you doing back here?” The second he said her name Rose’s head popped out from behind the corner.

“Celeste?” 

“I didn’t mean to startle you two, I’m just leaving some notes for Sky and Pearl before I leave,” she hurriedly explained.

“Leave? Where are you going?” Rose asked, face screwing up in confusion.

“Jaune and I have decided that all this wedding planning is just making us miserable… so were eloping; right now.” She set down her pen and started back toward the front of the shop.

“What!?” Rose squealed, following the other woman, Greg hot on her heels. 

“Were leaving for Empire city, were going to get married and stay the week.”

“What about everything you’ve already planned?” Rose followed her to the doors. Celeste stopped to face her sister.

“Rose, we’re just not happy with any of this, it’s to much work and stress.” 

Rose frowned, her lips pursed, but there was a certain sadness to it.

“It’s me isn’t it?” She asked after a handful of seconds. Celeste frowned. 

“You… haven’t helped…,” she softly admitted. “But it’s not just you…” She hurried to assure her. “Blanche is about to drive Jaune off the deep end. We’re tired and we just want to be married.” She explained.

Rose shared a look with Greg before turning back to her.

“What are you still doing here then? Go on!” She made a shooing motion with her hands that only made the baker smile.

“I’ll call you tomorrow!” She called as she hurried out of the shop.

Celeste opened the car door just in time to catch Jaune yelling into her phone.

“I’m sorry you feel that way mother, but that’s the way it’s going to be… every step of this has been more stressful than the last. We don’t want to deal with any of the planning anymore or what other people want; we’re going to do this our way!”

There was a long pause as she seemed to be listening to Blanch on the other end, her frown staying firmly in place.

‘No, we aren’t going to change our minds.” As if to emphasize this to her, she turned the key, starting the car.

There was another long pause, followed by Jaune rolling her eyes, one corner of her mouth twitching upwards as she glanced at Celeste. “You want to at least throw us a party when we get back…?” She cocked a brow in her direction and she nodded. “That’s fine, yes…...yes, I will, bye,” she hung up, setting the phone in the console. 

“Well?” Celeste asked as Jaune pulled out onto the road.

“She wasn’t happy of course,... but she’ll get over it. Let her throw a party, and her tune changes almost instantly,” she rolled her eyes, making Celeste laugh.

“So… there's nothing stopping us now…?” 

“Nothing,” Jaune affirmed, reaching over to squeeze her hand. Celeste squeezed back.

“Perfect”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~The end~


End file.
